
Class r^^h 
Book HZI 

copnuoHT DBPosn: 



/ 







BIENVILLE (After Margrv) 



COLONIAL MOBILE 



An Historical Study, largely from 
Original Sources, of the Alabama- 
Tombigbee Basin from the Dis- 
covery of Mobile Bay in 15 1 9 
until the Demolition of 
Fort Charlotte 
in 1821 



/- 



BY 



PETER y. HAMILTON, A. M. 

LATE FELLOW OF PRINCETON; AUTHOR OF " RAMBLES IN HISTORIC LANDS," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 





BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND v^OMPANY 

®!je $iitJcrsitic ptcsg, Cambribg* 

1897 



^ 



'\ 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED 



Copyright, 1897, 
By peter J. HAMILTON. 

All rights reserved. 



\ 



c& 



(y 



TO 

THE MEMORY OF 
MY FATHER 

PETER HAMILTON 

LAWYER, STUDENT, AND STATESMAN 

IN EVERY RELATION OF LIFE, WHETHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE 

HE WAS ALL THAT A MAN SHOULD BE 



^ 



PREFACE. 



I HAVE endeavored in this book to paint the exploration, 
settlement, and early development of the section of our country 
which is tributary to the Alabama-Tombigbee river basin. 
The vast region draining to Mobile Bay shows much diversity 
of soil, elevation, and climate, and is not less rich historically 
than in natural features. For here Indians, Spaniards, French, 
and English have lived and ruled before the American republic 
was born. 

And yet it is an unexhausted, in part an almost untrodden, 
literary field. Spain, France, and England lost the territory 
so long ago as to have lost likewise interest in its history. It 
has, too, so long been severed from the Mississippi valley, 
which was colonized from its shores, that the historians of 
modern Louisiana have known personally but little of this the 
original seat of that great empire, and have devoted their 
attention mainly to the later growth which centred on the 
lower Mississippi. And, on the other hand, the Americans, 
who made the basin and port of Mobile their own, approached 
from the north, where traces of earlier influence were slightest, 
and have now all but completely obliterated, even about Mobile, 
the Latin elements. An old-time local chronicler excused the 
meagreness of his earlier work with the remark that the French 
and Spanish times were hardly worthy of record, and that 
their land titles had only served to complicate and retard 
American enterprise. 

Some day the archaeologist will go yet farther back, and 
throw light on the southern mounds and canals and shell banks 



vi PREFACE. 

which, near Mobile as elsewhere, far antedate the white man, 
and make European epochs inappropriate, if not indeed too 
recent, to mark the divisions of American history. But the 
Mobile basin, from the Tennessee watershed to the Gulf, was 
the seat of an important history from the early part of the 
sixteenth century of even our era. Within these three centu- 
ries taken for our present theme came the discovery by the 
Spanish, exploration by the French, and the growth which we 
shall find under the French, English, Spanish, and Americans 
alike. 

And during much of that time, too, this was not done in a 
corner. The Mobile basin and port were explored by Pineda, 
Bazares, De Soto, and other Spaniards, both before and after 
the greater Mississippi was discovered, and the whole was 
repeatedly mapped and claimed for Charles V. and his suc- 
cessors. 

When the curtain lifts, over a century later, Iberville of 
France is taking up the plans of murdered La Salle, and from 
the capitals on Mobile River the Le Moyne brothers direct the 
settlement of the Mississippi as well as of the Alabama-Tom- 
bigbee basin, and oversee the intercourse with the natives and 
commerce with Europe. Iberville, Bienville, Chateaiigue, 
Penicaut, Davion, St. Denis, John Law, De Lusser, Grondel, 
and other famous men become familiar to us about Fort Louis, 
afterwards Fort Conde, and the outposts up the Tombigbee 
and Alabama rivers are not less centres of Indian trade than 
of French influence against the growing English colonies on 
the Atlantic coast. 

This remained true even after Mobile sank from her proud 
preeminence as capital to be but the head of the eastern depart- 
ment, but at last those English became masters of half of 
Louisiana. And yet Mobile then, severed from her old coun- 
try and associations, under Haldimand, Farmer, Durnford, 
and other Englishmen, largely recovered her touch with that 
eastern half of the Mississippi valley by communication through 
Bayou Manchac (or Iberville), until excesses of the soldiers 



PREFACE. vii 

brought the place into unnecessary discredit on the score of 
health. 

Galvez drove out the English, and for some years Spain 
seemed about to reestablish her vast American empire. But 
the rapid development of the United States was to make this 
period one of transition; and Panton, Espejo, Eslava, Price, 
Favre, and others are as memorable for the great land grants 
which were to become valuable under another government as 
for themselves and their own history. 

Still, in one way Wilkinson's capture of Mobile, the Creek 
War, the defence of Fort Bowyer, the development of the city 
which led to destruction of its old Latin fort, are even more 
attractive. For Sam Dale, Jerry Austill, Sam Mims, and 
George S. Gaines are every way closer to us than Bienville, 
Farmer, or even Forbes. They open the American period, and 
are akin to us as well as interesting historically. But, because 
they do introduce a modern period, they close the colonial 
epoch of Mobile and its river system. They bring us to a 
time, within the memory of men now living, when this district 
lost its individuality by merger into the greater sisterhood of 
American States. 

Others have partly studied the Latin past. The works of 
Monette and Pickett and Meek of Mississippi and Alabama 
before the Civil War were as valuable as those of Martin and 
Gayarre of Louisiana, and it is a public loss that the rich learn- 
ing of W. T. Walthall, W. S. Wyman, and others has not 
thus far been put in a form accessible to historical students. 
To them I yield their full meed of praise, and this book on 
many pages refers to their work and adopts it. 

But geographical research shows the full Spanish exploration 
of Mobile Bay under other names, and the Mobile church 
records from 1704, perhaps by myself first thoroughly studied, 
not less than the invaluable publications of Margry in France, 
make the French period almost a new thing. The papers of 
General Haldimand, only lately become accessible through 
Canadian enterprise, and the search made on my behalf by 



viii PREFACE. 

exjjerts in the British colonial offices, throw undreamecl-of light 
on the English times, and reveal that obscure epoch to us in a 
surprising manner. The land and court records, too, which 
survive at Mobile, enable us to restore Spanish Mobile as of 
yesterday: strange it is that they have so long escaped atten- 
tion. The American State Papers, too, are valuable. Per- 
haps only men of my own, the legal profession, can appreciate 
the value of some of this material ; and they will find valuable 
the summary of city land titles in the Appendix, even if much 
of it is not new to them. The American occupation is now 
first told from department reports, and the recently recovered 
corporation minutes of the town give us a picture of the change 
of Latin to Teutonic Mobile never yet in print. I have, at the 
apparent sacrifice of consistency and style, thought it best, in 
order to secure greater lifelikeness, to preserve the spelling of 
proper names as found in the authorities for the time under 
contribution. Family traditions have been used where prob- 
able, the old files of the "Register" examined, particularly the 
Reminiscences therein of George S. Gaines, and in fact aid has 
been levied from every source. 

Among the illustrations are Biloxi Bay, Dauphine Island, 
and Mobile in 1711, which have been kindly furnished by the 
French Minister of the Marine, the map of 1760 unearthed 
at Washington, and EUicott's stone photographed by myself. 
Neither these nor the pictures of old autographs and documents 
have been in print before. The other illustrations are rare, 
two being from Dr. Winsor's "Mississippi Basin," and of the 
map of 1824 now reproduced but three copies are known to 
exist. 

It will not be the least reward of my years of labor if I show, 
what has been all forgotten, the important part played by my 
loved native place in the early history of the Gulf coast, if 
I can restore her statue to its rightful pedestal, and perhaps 
even write my own name in some humble spot upon its base. 

The work has not been done in one place. At Waukesha 
was it first drafted, and the public libraries of Milwaukee and 



PREFACE. ix 

Chicago were of great assistance. Later, valuable books from 
Harvard have filled out gaps in my own collection made during 
many years; but investigations and studies at Mobile, Bladon 
Springs, Wetumpka, on the bluffs of Mobile River, the east- 
ern shore of the bay, Portersville, Dauphine Island, and other 
historic sites have aided me even more than books. The most 
of this volume has been written and revised, several times over, 
in the Mobile law office where my father so long worked, and 
especially in the pleasant study of his old home on Govern- 
ment Street, — to his children and friends a sanctuary. The 
enforced leisure of this fall (memorable for its panic rather than 
for fever) has enabled me the more carefully to revise the proofs, 
and even incorporate new material, particularly for the British 
and American periods. 

And now my pleasant task is done. But I would not lay 
down the pen without recalling some to whom I am indebted 
for assistance. To the War Department of the United States 
and to the Minister of the Marine of France I am under s^DCcial 
obligation for maps and information available nowhere else. 
The aid and interest of Justin Winsor have been gratifying. 
His death, but a few days ago, is a loss to historical study 
in America. Professor W. S. Wyman of Tuskaloosa, Erwin 
Craighead of the "Mobile Register," Thomas M. Owen of the 
Post-Office Department in researches at Washington, Gorham 
D. Williams of Boston, Douglas Brymner of the Canadian 
Archives, Louis de V. Chaudron of Mobile, with his well- 
selected books, E. S. Barnes, lately deceased, and Julius 
Eslava in examination of records, and J. J. Delchamps as to 
sites and traditions of the lower country, have, with others yet, 
aided me by suggestions and information ; and Hannis Taylor 
of Mobile, while United States minister, at least found that 
there was nothing new accessible in Spain. The lamented 
Catholic bishop, Jeremiah O'SuUivan, greatly facilitated my 
examination of church records; and of the many who have 
contributed reminiscence, William R. Yancey, a survivor of 
the War of 1812, and who died but this year in Baldwin 



X PREFACE. 

County, should be specially named. To J. B. Thornton, Esq., 
of Mobile, and Mr. W. G. Brown of the Harvard Library, 
I am indebted for help in revision and proof-reading. Most of 
all, however, I thank that patient hearer and judicious critic, 
Rachel Burgett Hamilton, my wife. 

PETER J. HAMILTON. 

Mobile, Ala., November 2, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. EXPLORATION. (1519-1670.) 

PAGE 

CHAFTEB 

I. The Country and the Natives ^ 

II. The Discovery of Mobile Bay 9 

III. De Soto at Maubila 1* 

rV. A Century of Obscurity 1° 



PART II. THE FRENCH CAPITAL. (1670, 1699-1722.) 

v. From La Salle to Iberville 25 

VI. Founding Fort Louis ^^ 

VIL Bienville • • • • ^ 

Vin. After Iberville's Death .^ ^^ 

IX. Life at the Old Fort .^ ^^ 

X. The Great Change of Base 69 

XI. Crozat and Cadillac • .77 



XII. In the Time of Law's Company 
XIII. Next-door Neighbors 



90 



PART III. THE DEPARTMENT OF MOBILE. (1722-1763.) 

XrV. Through the Chickasaw War 105 

XV. The Provincial Town 11-5 

XVI. Some Old FAmLiES . . .^ 120 

XVII. From the Cure's Window *^ 126 

XVIII. The City Map of 1760 134 

XIX. In the Archive Office 1^9 

XX. Dauphine Island and the Coast 149 

XXI. Fort Toulouse and Fort Tombecb^ 158 

XXn. The Seven Years' War 1*71 



PART rV. THE BRITISH DOMINATION. (1763-1780.) 

XXm. Briton and Indian 1^1 

XXIV. Major Robert Farmer 191 

XXV. In the Time of Haldimand 1^8 



xii CONTENTS. 

XXVI. Sickness 204 

XXVn. The Tombigbee River in 1771 215 

XXVIII. Tke Seventies 228 

XXIX. What Baktkam saw 237 

XXX. Politics 244 

XXXI. Galvez at Mobile 250 



PART V. UNDER THE SPANIARDS. (17S0-1813.) 

XXXII. Settling down again 261 

XXXIII. Under Folch and Lanzos 273 

XXXIV. Judicial Proceedings . . . ... . . . 280 

XXXV. The Demarcation Line and the LomsiANA Cession . . 291 

XXXVI. Streets and People 304 

XXXVII. In the Country 315 

XXXVIII. Church of the Immaculate Conception .... 328 

XXXIX. The Indian Trade 336 

XL. Mississippi Territory 343 

XLI. In the Balance 351 

XLII. The Capture of Mobile 357 



PART VI. AMERICANIZATION. (1813-1821.) 

XLm. The Creek War 367 

XLIV. Fort Bowyer 374 

XLV. Municipal Growth 386 

XLVI. Maps and Titles 400 

XL VII. The End of Fort Charlotte 406 



APPENDIX. 

(A) The Induction of De la Vente. (1704.) .... 417 

(B) Description de la Ville et du Fort Louis. (1711.) . . 417 

(C) The Ordinance of 1667 419 

(D) The Spanish City Grants 420 

(E) Marriages since the Auerican Capture .... 431 

INDEX 435 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Bienville, after Mabgry (Winsor's " The Mississippi Basin ") Frontispiece 

BiLOXY Bay (French Ministry of the Marine) 32 

Induction of La Vente (Mobile Church Records) .... 54 

Fort Louis, 1711 (French Ministry of the Marine) 70 

Mobile Bay and Coast, about 1732 (DanvUle) 86 

Mobile in 1760 (French Ministry of the Marine) 134 

Cadillac's Dauphine Island Grant (Mobile Archives) . . . 140 

Veue de lTsle Dauphine (Ministry of the Marine) .... 152 

The River Basin, about 1732 (Danville) 158 

The INDL4.N Nations in British Times (Bowen) 182 

Mobile about 1765 (Pittman) 192 

British ADMmALTY Chart, 1771 (U. S. War Department) . . . 210 

The Ellicott Stone (from recent photograph) 295 

Spanish Autographs (Mobile Archives) 304 

Mobile in 1824 (Goodwin & Haire . . 410 



PAET I. 
EXPLORATION. 

1519-1670. 



COLONIAL MOBILE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE COUNTRY AND THE NATIVES. 

A TRAVELER, sailing along the north coast of the Gulf of 
Mexico in the sixteenth century, would then as now observe 
but two main features. The green shore is much indented by- 
bays, some the estuaries of large rivers, while to the seaward 
it is protected from the main by a series of sand islands, form- 
ing from Mobile west to an outlet of the Mississippi a protect- 
ing chain. These low islands are thinly clad with pine and 
other growth; and the mainland beyond the Sound, sometimes 
swampy, and never rising into elevations exceeding a few feet, 
is itself sandy, but from near the beach inwards thickly cov- 
ered with pines, oaks, and magnolias, often of splendid propor- 
tions, and loaded with majestic hanging-moss. 

Of all the inlets from the Gulf none would attract more 
attention, if indeed as much, as that then as now called Mobile 
Bay. Its mouth is deep and narrow, easily defended, formed 
by a long point on the east side and an island on the other, 
while its sides extend in graceful curves from headland to head- 
land far into the interior. To the right as you enter is a cove, 
a wider sweep of water, and the deep anchorage of the lower 
harbor invites the commerce of the world. The bay averages 
perhaps ten miles wide by thirty long, and from each side 
receives dark but pure streams, even rivers, which have their 
origin in pine-shaded springs of the inland hills. The eastern 
shore offers steep bluffs, sometimes bare and red, but often 
covered with oaks and pines. At the head of the bay come in 
between marsh islands what would seem to be a half dozen large 
rivers, but on exploration these resolve themselves into two main 



4 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

streams, the Tensaw on the east aud the ISIobilo on the west, 
and thoir oonnootions, — themselves, indeed, all one river forty 
miles above. The intervening- delta is interseeted by bayous, 
and may be considered one large island, as it was mapped by 
the British, or a series of islands in one bay or estuary, as by 
the French. The southern third of the delta is so subject to 
overflow as to be of little value, but much of the rest, especially 
on ]\Iobile River, is covered only by very high water. IMui'h of 
the western bank is also subject to overflow, but bluft's twent}'- 
one miles, twenty-seven miles, and at other frequent intervals 
above the mouth, offer a safe residence. About fifty miles from 
the bay, this one river ^lobile is found to be the union of two 
that flow in, the one from the northeast aud the other from 
the nortliwest, the Alabama and Tombigbee of our day, both 
subject to the tide over a hundred miles up from the bay. 
With their large tributaries, these wide, tawny rivers drain the 
greater part of our Alabama, besides nnich of the present 
Georgia and Mississippi. Fringed with willows and reflecting 
the Cottonwood, oak, and beech of the higher banks, which 
hide the upland forests of pines and oaks, they are navigable for 
hunilreds of miles above the bay, and play a great part in the 
country's history, even before the white man developed the rich 
lands adjacent. The low land extends up the rivers for many 
miles beyond the fork, but bluft's are freqiunit along the upper 
half of the streams, while the Coosa and Tallapoosa run, often 
in falls and rapids, through romantic mountain scenery, before 
uniting to form the Alabama and ]Mobile. 

The Bay, often brackish in its northern half, once abounded 
all over in oysters, as it still does in the lower parts, and also 
in clams and crabs, while trout, mackerel, sheephead, aud other 
sea-flsh raced its waters. Sharks and porpoises prowled almost 
u]> to the fresh-water tributaries, in which sported the sluggish 
alligator among trout, bream, catfish, perch, aud their like, and 
on land the deer, bear, wolf, and small game roved the coast 
at will, while sea-fowl and land birds lived about the shore. 

In this river basin and bay, indeed, consists the historical 
importance of what is now Alabama and much of Georgia and 
^lissisvsippi. The great Apalachian range, that continental 
ridge thrown up parallel with the Atlantic Ocean in remote 
geologic times, extends under dift'erent names from New Eng- 



THE COUNTRY AND THE NATIVES. 5 

land southwestwardly to near the Gulf. It determined the 
location of the Atlantic colonies Ly limiting them on the west, 
even where, as in New York, a river partially pierced the momi- 
tains. To the west was the great Mississii)pi basin, almost un- 
approachalde over the mountains, except by the passes to the 
headwaters of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumljerland rivers. It 
was readily accessible from the east only by the St. Lawrence 
and Great Lakes on the north, or by turning the flank of the 
Apalachian range far to the south in these foothills where the 
waters flowing to Mobile take their origin. 

This Alabama basin, therefore, had a double importance, — 
for its own sake, on account of its soil, products, and races, and 
then again as being a gateway from the east to the greater 
valley of the Mississippi. Other streams, it is true, seek the 
Gulf to the east and west ; but they are not so large and do 
not drain so great a territory as the Alaljama and Tombigbee, 
which unite to form the Mobile. Hence the importance, geo- 
graphically speaking, of a city near that river and harbor, 
particularly before the modern invention of railroads could 
pierce mountains, and capital could divert trade into channels 
which have no necessary relation to natural advantages. 

On the waters tributary to Mobile Bay were in the sixteenth 
century many inhabitants of the industrious Molnlian race, 
whose empire extended from the GuK up through the rich lands 
which we now call the Cotton Belt, with capital at Maubila. 
This was probably in the present Clarke County, on the Ala- 
bama River. 

This extensive race was a weU-forraed one, the men brave, 
the women often beautiful. Agricidture flourished, and peas, 
beans, squash, pumj^kins, and corn grew profusely.^ If the 
plates and descriptions of Jacob le Moyne, of 1567 freproduced 
by Pickett), apply to our own natives as well as to those of 
eastern Florida, the Indians had attained considerable civili- 
zation. They lived in wooden houses at the foot of artificial 
mounds, on which were the dwellings of the chiefs. In the 
delta above Stockton there is still a large mound, fifty feet 
high, necessarily made of earth brought in canoes from the 
mainland, and near Blakeley has been found a burned clay 
head of much artistic merit. 

1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 68. 



6 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Arrowheads, pipes, stones for grinding, and other Indian 
relics occur lower than Mobile, but there have been discovered 
few evidences of permanent settlements on the Gulf itself, unless 
we except the shell banks near Portersville and elsewhere, con- 
taining human remains and utensils. Near the seashore in In- 
dian times, therefore, the mockingbird's charm was unheeded, 
and the glories of sunrise and sunset lighted up the surface 
of the lower bay in vain; for Indian canoes were unsuited to 
rough water, and the savages have never been famous sailors. 
Hunting and fishing are more easily pursued in the interior 
than by the sea, and so the natives have ever readily yielded 
the coast, and fought only for the forests and the rivers. To 
the early white explorers, on the other hand, the sea was to be 
of the first importance. From harbors like Dauphine Island, 
they could carry on commerce with the natives and still keep in 
touch with their European homes. In the interior of Alabama, 
ditches about Indian wooden forts are not infrequent, and also 
the small mounds in which at certain intervals they collected 
the bones of the dead gathered from their temples. In all ages 
and among all races, graves, reverently guarded by the living, 
have been the most imperishable memorials of the past. Of 
these mounds few have survived lower than the latitude of 
Mobile, although they are frequent in modern Greene County, 
Alabama, and elsewhere in the interior of that State and Mis- 
sissippi. Perhaps there are more east of what we now call the 
Tensaw River than on the western shore of the Mobile delta. 
It may be that the mounds and shell banks about Stockton and 
the neighboring waters mark the villages which Spanish explor- 
ers were to notice, although we know that in later times Mobile 
Eiver and its upper tributaries were the main seat of Indian 
life. 

The rough country between the Tennessee and the main 
- streams of the Warrior, Coosa, and Tallapoosa, which now 
supplies the great mineral wealth of Alabama, was but sparsely 
inhabited by the aborigines, and was indeed to remain of second- 
ary importance until the last third of our own century, while 
the beautiful valley of the Tennessee was not important in colo- 
nial times, and will not figure much in our story. Its western 
portion was within the range of the warlike Chickasaws, but 
most of this region was the seat of the Cherokees, who extended 



THE COUNTRY AND THE NATIVES. 7 

into Tennessee and Georgia as well as Alabama; while east, 
over the Carolina mountains from them, were the brave Cataw- 
bas. Creeks and Choctaws will concern us more, for they 
lived on or near the rivers that empty into Mobile Bay. 

Patient linguistic research, applied to our aboriginal tongues, 
has produced as interesting and unexpected results as in the 
older field of the Indo-European races. While language is not 
infallible, for conquered or even conquering nations may adopt 
that of their opponents, it is in general an accurate test, and 
often reveals kinship and alienage not otherwise suspected. 

Scholars like Grote in Greek and Gatschet in Indian investi- 
gation find it necessary to respell and reeoin names according 
to their true sounds; but suffice it for us to reproduce their 
results in more familiar terms. For Cha'hta let us still have 
Choctaw, for Maskoki, Muscogee. 

It seems that the Muscogee race, extending from the Missis- 
sippi to the Atlantic, from the Apalachian range to the Gidf, 
living in what we may call the Alabama Basin, broke an- 
ciently into an eastern and western branch, and each of these 
then separated into tribes. Of the eastern branch the Creeks 
were the most pi'ominent, of the western the Choctaws, from 
whom in their turn the warlike Chickasaws seceded, and inter- 
mediate between the two branches came the Alibamons on their 
river. In the eastern grouj) we find the Creeks and Semiuoles, 
the Creeks being on the upper sources of the Alabama River 
and on the Chattahoochee, and in the western, close akin to 
the Choctaws, were the Biloxi, Ouma or Huma, Pascagoula, 
and other familiar tribes. ^ Despite the kinship, the Choctaws, 
themselves in Upper and Lower divisions, were almost always 
at war with the Creeks. Their disputed boundary was between 
our Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, near the Choctaw Corner 
of later days. 

In customs they show a unity in their very diversity. All 
used the colors red and white, as indicative the one of war, the 
other of peace ; they all had some kind of family distinction by 
totems ; all used the ilex cassine for a black drink prior to war ; 
all worshiped the sun in some form ; and all deified the Mas- 
ter of Life. Flattening the heads of children and gathering 
the bones of the dead for reinterment were more characteristic 
^ Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, p. 52. 



8 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

of tlie Choctaw branch, public squares and the green corn dance 
(puskitci) of the Creeks; but in both the descent of children 
followed the mother, both had the chunkey game, and, like all 
Indians, they scalped the fallen foe.^ 

The Mobilian language was understood by all, but no certain 
explanation of the word Mobile is given, unless Gatschet's 
suggestion be right, that it is from the Choctaw word which 
means "paddling." The site of Mobile was Choctaw, as, 
strange to say, was that of the tribes on the Chickasawhay, 
near which dwelled Choctaws incredibly said to be, with those 
of Yoani, the only ones who could swim. The Choctaws were 
tillers rather than hunters, and, while the northern division 
were warlike, the southern were dirty, indolent, and sometimes 
cowardly. The mythical origin of the Choctaws was from Nani 
Way a, a mound fifty feet high near the head of Pearl Kiver, 
which lasted down to our own days.^ The Alibamons had a 
somewhat similar legend about springing from the ground be- 
tween the Cahaba and Alabama rivers; and indeed the Creeks 
also believed that they originated in caves on the Red River, 
and that they wandered eastwardly in ceaseless conflict with the 
Alibamons, whom they were to absorb. 

1 Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, pp. 51, 91, 102, 153. 

2 Ibid., pp. 95, 102-105, 109. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DISCOVERY OF MOBILE BAY. 

The union of Castile and Aragon, the fortunate marriages 
of the royal house, and the discovery of America combined to 
make Spain in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the fore- 
most country of the civilized world. 

The sreat age of Charles V. was as momentous in America 
as in Europe. It saw the Old World rent in twain by the wars 
of the Reformation. It beheld the greater part of both conti- 
nents of the New World made provinces of Sjiain. The West 
Indies, the first fruits of Columbus's discoveries, barred off 
the inquisitive English, who from Cabot's time were thus 
driven further northward, and this made the Gulf of Mexico a 
Spanish lake. From it, according to the protection notions of 
that day, all other nations should be excluded. 

Columbus himself always supposed that he had reached the 
Asiatic islands, and he never touched our North American 
continent, although he explored the shores of Brazil. The 
oxhide map of his follower Coza, in 1500, and that of Cantino, 
two years later, show Cuba and the West Indies in some detail ; 
but even the Ruysch map of 1508, while exhibiting the islands 
and South America as Mundus Novus, has no northern conti- 
nent between Europe and Asia.^ 

Hayti and then Cuba were at first the great objects of Span- 
ish interest, but as their explorations progressed they found 
the mainland of North America, and it gradually develops on 
the rare old maps which time has spared. In 1513, Ponce de 
Leon, in a vain search for the fountain of youth, led the way 
from Cuba to the Spanish colonization of the Florida he named, 
and six years later, Cortez from the same island conquered the 
rich Aztec kingdom, Mexico, the seat, it may be, of the Mound- 

' Maps in Scaife's America. For the Admiral's map, thought to be one 
of Columbus, see 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, p. 112. 



10 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

builders once in the Mississippi valley. This fired others to 
seek, on the shores of our Gulf, dominions which would enrich 
themselves and at the same time spread further the sway of 
His Catholic Majesty. The Mexican gulf and its islands be- 
came Spanish, well explored by their navigators, but unfortu- 
nately little is even yet known of their voyages. Their reports 
and papers may some day be unearthed from peninsular con- 
vents and libraries to enrich history, but for the present we 
have only meagre outlines and few maps. From them we learn 
at least, however, that Mexico (including also our Texas and 
the Northwest) was called New Spain, and that all east to 
the Atlantic was also claimed for Spain under the name of 
Florida. 

Indeed, a Spanish governor of Jamaica named Garay sent 
out, in 1519, an exploring expedition to find a passage west of 
Florida, — still supposed to be an island. The commander, 
Pineda, coasted along the northern shore of the Gulf from east 
to west. He explored westwardly until he came to Mexico, 
and there can be no doubt that he visited Mobile Bay. He 
could not well have missed it, and next year Garay sent home 
a map embracing his discoveries, and this shows it plainly. 
Pineda or Garay probably can claim to have given to Mobile 
Bay and River the name of the Holy Spirit, although the 
Admiral's map of 1513 may be thought to show it also as Rio 
de la Palma. This is supposed to have been based on a map 
of Columbus.^ 

On this expedition, Piiieda reports that he discovered a river 
of great volume, and on it a considerable town. He remained 
there forty days trading with the natives and careening his 
vessels. He also ascended the river, and found its banks so 
thickly inhabited that in six leagues he counted forty Indian 
hamlets. The Mississippi has claimed this exploration, but it 
cannot be. The lower Mississippi was always marshy and un- 
inhabitable, and the conditions all point to a site on Mobile 
Bay or the tributary rivers. From 1520, the time of Garay's 
report of his discoveries, the Bay and River of Spirito Sancto 
(or Espiritu Santo) is on most maps. Indeed, the indentations 

^ See maps accompanying Scaife's America, and the many shown in 
2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, particularly on pp. 112, 218-221, 
etc. Cf. also, 2 Narrative and Critical History, pp. 113, 237. 



THE DISCOVERY OF MOBILE BAY. 11 

of the coast and the eastern offset that mark Mobile Bay made 
up henceforth the most prominent landmark on the northern, 
as R. de Panuco (Tampico) does of the western Gulf coast. 
This seems to show it as well known and often visited. 

The plans in Winsor's " Narrative and Critical History " 
(Spanish Explorations) are unmistakable from about 1520 for- 
ward. The pear-shaped bay within the coast line, the long 
eastern offset at the mouth, which we call Mobile Point, are 
plain. No other harbor corresponds, least of all the Missis- 
sippi, with its projecting passes. A recent laborious investiga- 
tor was attracted by the discrepancy between the early maps and 
the modern histories which say the Mississippi was called by the 
Spaniards Rio del Espiritu Santo, River of the Holy Spirit, 
and Scaife's careful examination seems to leave no doubt that 
this was really the Mobile River. Dr. Winsor's maps seem to 
disprove Dr. Winsor's text, and in a later work he in part 
admits the Mobile claim, ^ The Mississi^jpi is the greatest 
river on this continent, and very possibly the Spaniards would 
have named it for the Holy Spirit, if they had discovered it 
first; but they did not, unless the unnamed three mouths on 
the Admiral's map alone be it. It is not easily found from the 
sea. A century and a half later, La Salle, who had explored 
it thoroughly from above, missed the mouth while seeking it 
from the GuK. On the other hand, Mobile Bay is easily seen 
from without. 

There can be hardly any doubt, then, that the Bay of the 
Holy Spirit was Mobile Bay, the only one named on many 
maps. Its shape and location bear no other reasonable ex- 
planation. It might be that if the great Mississippi was 
known, it might have been erroneously supposed to empty into 
the great harbor we call Mobile Bay, and so marked, as was, in 
fact, later done on Franquelin's map of 1681. ^ But where is 
the evidence that the Mississippi was known in 1520? Who 
was its discoverer before De Soto? Mobile Bay has a large 
river flowing into it, — two, in fact, and it is not only begging 
the question, but making a very improbable assumption, to 

1 W. B. Scaife's America, its Geographical History, 1892 ; Winsor's Mis- 
sissippi Basin, p. 76. Erwin Craighead, of Mobile, by independent investi- 
gation, reached the same conchision, but his essay has not been published. 

2 Parkman's Discovery of the Great West, p. 410. 



12 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

suppose that the river of the Holy Spirit was thought to be 
other than the Mobile River which does empty into the bay. 

After they discovered the greater stream, the Spaniards 
really called the Mississippi "Rio Grande," a translation of its 
meaning; but they did not discover it until De Soto crossed in 
1541, nor did they probably see its mouth until Moscoso and 
his three hundred survivors of that ill-fated expedition drifted 
down, in 1543, trying to find Mexico. Meantime a dozen maps 
had already outlined the familiar shape of Mobile Bay, and 
called it and the river for the Holy Spirit. 

The first with the name seems to be that of 1520, sent to 
Spain by Garay, probably embodying, as we have seen, the 
results of Pineda's expedition of the preceding year.^ The 
Ferdinand Columbus map of 1527 gives the bay as if with a 
double head, but, as copied by Winsor, has no names. 

Preserved at Weimar, perhaps brought there by Charles V., 
is a large map of the world as then known. It was by the 
Spanish Ribero, in 1527, and is one of the cartographical 
treasures of Europe. The coast of North America is shown 
up to New England, of South America past Brazil, in incorrect 
relations, perhaj5s, while the Gulf of Mexico ajjpears in great 
detail, — evidently the part of the Mundus Novus then best 
known. No name is given the continents or the Gulf, but 
Mexico is called Nova Spana, Yucatan, Cuba, and Florida all 
have their modern titles, and probably a hundred points bear 
names about their coasts. 

On it "by far the most prominent body of water emptying 
into the Gulf of Mexico" is a double bay called "Mar Pe- 
queiia," Little Sea, which indicates that the water is salt. Flow- 
ing into this bay is the Rio del Spirito (our Mobile River),^ 
and the bay is correctly represented as receiving its water 
through several streams. The Ribero map of 1529 is in effect 
the same, giving the name as R. d Espiritu Santo. ^ 

Meantime, in 1528, Panfilo de Narvaez had made his adven- 
turous exploration of the Gulf coast. Foiled in his attempt to 
oust Cortez from Mexico, he undertook, with the royal sanction, 
an expedition to Florida. Where he landed is uncertain, but 

1 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, p. 218, etc. ; p. 43. 

2 Scaife's America, pp. 154, 159. 

^ 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, p. 221, 



THE DISCOVERY OF MOBILE BAY. 13 

at all events, he found a poor country. After many hardships 
he reached the sea again among the Apalaches of St. Mark's 
Bay, and built rude boats to take his little army to Mexico. 
Coasting along to the west, it is thought he landed in Mobile 
Bay for water, ^ — possibly at the Belief ontaine which was to 
be so well known in French times. A tradition afterwards 
among the French was to be that the bones of his men were 
those found bleaching on Massacre (our Dauphine) Island. 
Narvaez's own boat was driven out to sea by the current of 
a large river, but some of his followers lived to make, under 
Cabeza de Vaca, that famous expedition which first revealed the 
counti-y near the Rocky Mountains.^ 

The next visitor to Mobile Bay, of whom we have an account, 
was De Soto's admiral, Maldonado. Him we pass for the 
present, but to Spaniards generally the place was apparently 
well known. Although they kept their discoveries to them- 
selves, as did each exploring nation, even the English Cabot, 
in 1544, had a map of the world that shows our bay with the 
river emptying into it, while the greater Mississippi was not 
known to him, and French maps of about that time, giving 
both the Mobile rivers, mark the western for St. Esprit. What 
appears to be a Spanish map, preserved in the Bodleian Library, 
similarly marks the western branch R. del Spirit. Santo, while 
Homem, in 1558, shows the name as applying more especially 
to the river from the junction to the bay. In 1570 came 
Ortelius's map, and on this Mobile Bay is Baia de Culata, 
Muddy Bay, doubtless from a visit when the river was high.^ 

Reasonably certain it is, therefore, that the river and bay of 
the Holy Spirit were those otherwise called Mobile, and that 
when Maldonado sought westwardly for a harbor for De Soto, 
his charts would point him to our bay as the one receiving a 
large river named Holy Spirit, coming from that vast interior 
into which we must now follow his daring master. 

1 Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 190. 

2 As to Narvaez, see, also, 2 Wiiisor's Narrative and Critical History, 
p. 242. 

3 See map in Scaife's America; 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, 
pp. 224, 225, 227, 229, 292. 



CHAPTER III. 

DE SOTO AT MAUBILA. 

In the fall of 1540 of our era, near a bluff on the Alabama 
River, stood the principal city of the Gulf Indians. Its name 
is given as Mavila or Maubila, and so that, too, of the yel- 
low river below, on which canoes then plied back and forth. 
The place was surrounded by plastered log walls, pierced with 
port-holes. To the west of an open square in the middle was 
the dwelling of the "emperor," Tuskaloosa, Black Warrior, — 
emperor, for he ruled not only his immediate town, but also 
distant tribes from the Coosa and Bigbee to the Gulf. His 
residence was on an artificial mound, and overlooked the 
rest. About the square were large wooden buildings capable of 
holding in an emergency a thousand men each, and occupied 
by tried warriors, and beyond them were the wooden houses 
and bark wigwams of many others. Food and arms were stored 
up, and messengers mysteriously came and went between the 
capital and its ruler. 

The emperor and his chosen men had gone towards the north- 
east to meet a pale face, who seemed one with the animal he 
rode, and who was traversing the country with six hundred 
men. One third of these were mounted, and all were clad in 
metal, and bore weapons that belched fire and smoke. Such 
people reminded Tuskaloosa of traditions of the gods, — tra- 
ditions old among these Mobilians. But this De Soto was not 
a god, vmless a god of war. Reports had come of his cruelty, 
and that he enslaved or killed at will. From Tampa, where he 
landed the year before, from Savannah's Silver Bluff to Chiaha, 
where Rome in Georgia stands, he had come, intent only on 
finding gold and pearls, and respecting nothing. He kept cap- 
tive the chief of one tribe until he reached the next. With 
him were robed priests, too, who bore a cross and adored a mys- 
terious box. 



DE SOTO AT MAUBILA. 15 

From the kingdom of Coosa on the Coosa and Tallapoosa 
rivers he was now advancing. Tuskaloosa's son had guided him 
through the canes and autumn forests, the emperor had received 
him in pomp, but with dignity and pride, the equal of his own, 
in our Montgomery County. And now they were at the gates, 
the gigantic emperor in Spanish scarlet, and himself mounted 
on one of those strange steeds. 

Tuskaloosa felt himself a captive, but he showed no signs 
of hostility. He had the sacred relics and vestments of the 
priests, the pearls and treasures of the Spaniards stored, and 
their wondering van under De Soto marched with him into that 
public square surrounded by great wooden houses, such as they 
had not seen in their year's exploration. Music lulled them, 
and beautiful girls danced a welcome to them, and as the two 
were seated under a canopy of state Tuskaloosa requested that 
he be held no longer hostage. When De Soto hesitated, the 
chief arose and entered a house. ^ He could not be induced to 
return, and warned the Spaniards themselves to depart. An 
insulting Indian attendant was cut in two by the sword of the 
incensed Baltasar de Gallegos, and that brought on a conflict. 

Swarming Indians drove the Spaniards out of the city with 
the loss of five killed and many wounded. Charge and sortie 
followed each other for nine long hours. It was a contest for 
superiority between numbers with bows on the one hand, and 
a disciplined few with armor and powder on the other. In 
bravery there was no choice. In this hand to hand conflict, 
the Indian fighting for his king and home was as brave as the 
European fighting for existence in a savage land. 

De Soto led his men more than once even into the city, but 
as often was driven out, until the arrival of Moscoso with the 
rear gave fresh reinforcements and decided the day. Fire was 
applied, and by its light in the great square was the conclusion 
of the bloodiest conflict in our history. A few warriors and 
priests had held a house in the city from the start, and were 
now rescued. About were piles of dead, and burned in their 
homes were Indians who died rather than surrender. The 
spring without the gate was red with blood. 

The Spaniards conquered; but eighty-two men were killed 

1 Pickett's A lahama, p. 28 ; Gentleman of Elvas, pp. 157-159 (French's 
Historical Collection') ; Biedma's Narrative, pp. 102, 113 (French's Historical 
Collection). 



16 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

and forty-five of the horses, — an irreparable loss. Every one 
in the army was wounded, De Soto seriously in the thigh. 
They camped in the smoking square. 

The brave ruler was never found, and doubtless died with 
his subjects. Six thousand or more Indians fell on this fatal 
18th of October, and the Mobilian power was broken. The 
natives who survived abandoned their homes forever, and it is 
supposed settled nearer the mouth of the river. 

It was many days before the victors could pursue their 
march. The wounded must rest. Stores and treasures of all 
kinds had been burned. There were now no sacred garments, 
no wheaten flour and grape wine for the mass, and thencefor- 
ward they celebrated only Dry Mass in deerskins. Even play- 
ing-cards were gone, but parchment was cut up and painted to 
supply that need of the army of gamesters. 

It was a Pyrrhic victory. The soldiers talked of desertion. 
At Achusee, forty leagues below, at the mouth of the river, 
they now knew was Maldonado and his fleet awaiting them. 
But all their pearls and treasures were gone, and De Soto de- 
termined to winter inland. ^ The adelantado took counsel only 
with himself, and on Sunday, November 18, broke up camp and 
marched northward. It was a thunderbolt to the army, but 
they obeyed. 

Where Maubila was is not certain. Several sites, particu- 
larly two, are suggested. The Delisle map of 1707, drawn at 
a time when there may have been Indian traditions still avail- 
able to the French, locates it on the Mobile River, where we 
shall later find the Mobilians settled. ^ This cannot be dis- 
proved, but the consensus of opinion, from the time of A. B. 
Meek's article of 1839 in the Southron, has been that it was 
more probably on the Alabama River, in what is now Clarke 
County. Probabilities point to what is called Choctaw Bluff, 
where a spring and Indian remains are found. ^ 

The whole of his route is uncertain, although there is a gen- 
eral acceptance of the views of Judge Meek and Pickett, who 
make him enter northeast Alabama from Georgia, descend the 
Coosa and Alabama to Maubila, thence strike northwest towards 
the falls of Tuskaloosa, and march onward into Mississippi. 

1 Biedma's Narrative, p. 104 (French's Historical Collection). 

2 See 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, pp. 294, 295. 
s See Ball's Clarke County. 



DE SOTO AT MAUBILA. 17 

But Spanisli descriptions are vague and stilted, and the daring 
expedition cannot in all details be tracked. 

How lie fought Choctaws at Cabusto on the Warrior River 
near our Eutaw, passed west out of the Alabama-Tombigbee 
basin and found the Alibamos then living upon the Yazoo, dis- 
covered the great Mississippi in May, 1541, near Memphis, 
wandered west in search for gold, and finally returned a year 
later only to be buried in its flood ; how Moscoso led the sur- 
vivors, and in July, 1543, floated down its bosom with his 
three hundred and twenty men and discovered the mouth, and 
at last landed in Mexico, — all of this cannot be detailed here. 
Mobile was not yet to be connected with the discovery of the 
Mississippi. 

For us is rather the story of Maldonado. At De Soto's 
command this admiral had sailed west from Apalache and 
reached a convenient harbor at Chusee, where he traded with 
the natives in the villages for two months. This he reported 
to the adelantado at Apalache again in 1540, and was directed 
to take back to Havana Dona Isabella, De Soto's wife, obtain 
supplies from Cuba, and in October meet the army at this port, 
by the river Holy Spirit.^ He obeyed, and was in Mobile Bay 
at the right time.^ 

As we have seen, the news reached the general at Maubila, 
but no message came back. The fleet waited, but the army 
never arrived. Why, Maldonado did not know, as we do. 
He stayed awhile, watching the shores, and then sadly sought 
other ports. He explored and left signals everywhere, but in 
vain, and finally returned to Cuba, with no news for the dis- 
tracted Doila Isabella de Bobadilla. 

Other voyages yet he made to find the army. After two 
years he touched at Vera Cruz, and learned the fatal truth, — 
the army a wreck, the general buried in the mighty stream 
which he had discovered. The search was over now. But 
not Maldonado alone was grieved; the faithful Isabel learned 
it, too, and at Havana, broken-hearted, died. 

^ Biedma's Narrative, p. 99 (2 French's Historical Collection'). 

2 Pickett, Meek, and others seem to think that the Chusee of Maldonado 
(Ochus in their books) was Pensacola ; but the recent examination of W. B. 
Scaife leaves little doubt that it was Mobile Bay. {America, p. 153.) Biedma 
says that they believed the river they crossed just before nearing Maubila 
emptied into the bay called Chusee. (Biedma, p. 102; H. Ternaux-Compans, 
Recueil sur la Floride, p. 72.) 



CHAPTER IV. 

A CENTURY OF OBSCURITY. 

The fate of Narvaez and De Soto seems to have deterred 
Spaniards from exploring the interior. For it was clear that 
there were no precious metals easily accessible, and Mexico, 
the West Indies, and South America received such colonists 
as Spain could spare. Peninsular Florida was partly settled, 
but the Mobile basin was left to the aborigines. The bay, 
however, was well known to the Spaniards. 

By the year 1558, New Spain, Mexico, had become as thor- 
oughly Spanish as it was ever to be. Cortez, it is true, was 
dead, but the succeeding viceroys were even better rulers. 
One of the best, Velasco, like Garay of Jamaica, sent out an 
explorer towards the north, this time to examine for purposes 
of colonization, and thus in that year Guido de las Bazares 
sailed on this mission. Pineda had explored from the east, 
and now Bazares explored the Gulf coast from the west towards 
peninsular Florida. 

Bazares accordingly, on September 3, 1558, left San Juan 
de Lua (Vera Cruz) with sixty seamen and soldiers in a large 
bark, a galley, and a shallop. In 29^° north latitude, he dis- 
covered an island, perhaps four leagues from the mainland. 
He passed within It and the mainland and other islands, and, 
as he explored all the coast, he observed that it was bordered 
by marshy ground and not in favorable position to begin a 
colony ; nevertheless, he took possession, and gave it the name 
of Bas Fonde. 

Now offhand, without prepossessions, this reminds one of 
Pascagoula Bay, with its low coast and several protecting 
islands. 

Ten leagues further east, he passed an island and discovered 
a bay which he named Filipina, — for King Philip II. , no 
doubt, it being the largest and most commodious bay on the 



A CENTURY OF OBSCURITY. 19 

coast. The bottom was mud, and the bay four or five fathoms 
deejj, the channel three or four. There he found fish and 
oysters. On the shore were pine forests, oak, cypress, ash, 
pahnetto, laurel, cedar, etc., and there appeared to be the 
mouth of a great river. In an eastwardly direction were high 
red hills. Game abounded, and he found a large number of 
canoes and huts, also maize, beans, and pumpkins. Bazares 
afterwards renamed this bay Velasco. He was compelled to 
stop his explorations here, and hence returned to Mexico. ^ 

It is not certain whether Filipina Bay is that of Mobile or 
Pensacola. The depth within Mobile Bay and other character- 
istics suit Mobile at least as well, however, and the only diffi- 
culty is the entrance channel, given as three to four fathoms, 
while Iberville in 1699, a century and a half later, was to 
report that he found the bar only thirteen feet deep, although 
within, the bay had eight fathoms. ^ 

The fact seems to be that there are two channels into Mobile 
Bay, an eastern and western. This led President Monroe, on 
the report of the United States Engineer Department in 1822, 
to recommend • the fortifying of Dauphine Island as well as 
Mobile Point. ^ At that time the water on the outer bar, from 
which both led inward to the bay, was eighteen feet. The 
western channel along the north bank of Pelican and Sand 
islands (which are but parts of one breakwater) was from eight 
to eighteen feet deep and a half mile wide, against twenty to 
forty-two feet depth in the eastern channel, which was about 
a mile wide by Mobile Point. The two passages were and are 
separated by a shallow space called Middle Ground, but beyond 
the west channel and in the angle between Dauphine and Peli- 
can islands was an anchorage eighteen to twenty-two feet deep. 

The west channel in French and earlier times, however, 
seems to have passed between these two islands from the Gulf 
into this Pelican Bay, and thence on into Mobile Bay, and did 
not come over the Sand Island bar at all. We shall see this 
Pelican Bay closed by a storm in 1717, and only since that 
time do we find the main entrance to be over to the east near 

1 7 French's Historical Collection, pp. 237, 238 ; H. Ternaux-Compans, 
Recueil sur la Floride, p. 145. 

2 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 20. See 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 232. 
8 Message and Documents, March 26, 1822. 



20 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Mobile Point. In 1558, the Pelican channel may well have 
had four fathoms. In fact, it must have been deep, for the 
same volume of water had to discliarge from Mobile Bay as 
now. If it sought the west channel, it must have scoured that 
out as it now does the eastern. 

All the other features agree with Mobile, — the island passed 
as he came from the west, red cliffs, fish, oysters, game, and 
the forest, while the mouth of a great river not only is true of 
Mobile, but is distinctly not true of Pensacola. So, too, of the 
distance from the last bay, ten leagues. This is about the dis- 
tance of Mobile from Pascagoula Bay, while that of Pensacola 
from Mobile Bay, if this is to be Bas Fonde, is almost double 
ten leagues. Besides, Iberville was to report Mobile Bay "very 
beautiful for habitation," ^ while Bazares says his Bas Fonde 
was not favorable for colonization. It would seem, therefore, 
probable that Filipina or Velasco was Mobile Bay. 

The expedition of Bazares had the definite object of selecting 
the site for a colony, and was thus very different from the ex- 
ploration of Piiieda thirty -nine years before. A settlement 
was actually made in the summer of 1559 by Tristan de Luna y 
Arellano on the Bay of Ichuse, with 1500 settlers and soldiers. 
Where this was is as uncertain as much else in Spanish colonial 
enterprises. Shea makes Ichuse to have been Santa Rosa Bay, 
but it would seem more likely Mobile, if we are right in regard 
to Maldonado. The report of Velasco to the king in one place 
identifies Fort "Ychuse" with the bay of Filipina de Santa 
Maria, and in another place says the port of "Ychuse" is twenty 
leagues from this bay, and that soldiers and horses were landed 
at this bay and marched across. Wherever it was, the colonists 
suffered from a hurricane and loss of supplies. They under- 
took expeditions into the interior to Nanipacna, a large river 
town, and again to Cosa, where they were aided by the natives.^ 

Tristan tried to maintain himself at Ichuse, but his men had 
suffered so severely that they all but mutinied, and in 1561 so 
many left on the vessels of Villafane, which called in the port, 
that the settlement was practically abandoned. 

Ichuse is sometimes spelled Chusee, sometimes Ochus, and 

1 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 20. 

2 Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, p. 190 ; H. Ternaux-Compans, Re- 
cueil sur la Floride, pp. 157, 158, 161. 

t 



A CENTURY OF OBSCURITY. 21 

it is at least significant that as late as 1786, when the Mobile 
district was in Spanish hands again, we have a grant of land 
near Portersville on the Mobile County coast bounded east by 
Ocas Island. 

After the Spanish Armada of 1588, the naval supremacy of 
Spain was in question, and her power declined. The English 
in the next century settled New England, Virginia, and Caro- 
lina, while the French colonized the banks of the St. Law- 
rence, and either race was ready to dispute with the Sj)aniards 
the Gulf coast. For the Spanish claim was nominal between 
Mexico and peninsular Florida. 

During this time there is little history for the Mobile dis- 
trict. The Indian traditions are more interesting than reliable. 

De Soto's expedition, according to these legends, played 
havoc with the natives. Like the invasion by the Heraclidae 
in the early times of Greece, there resulted a legendary re- 
arrangement of nations. These now discredited traditions say 
that the disruption of the Mexican empire by Cortez a few 
years earlier drove northwardly races that were not equal to 
conflict with civilized arms, but were too brave to yield. 
Themselves warring as they moved, the Alibamos and Musco- 
gees followed the Mississippi, the former to settle on the 
Yazoo, the latter on the Ohio.^ The Alibamos, after their 
conflict with De Soto, moved eastwardly to the river since 
known by their name, and, on the extinction of the political 
power of Maubila, the Muscogees came southwardly and settled 
on the Coosa and Chattahoochee. They were themselves later 
to be named, from the many water courses. Creek Indians. 
The Creeks and Alibamos resumed their hereditary war in the 
new seats, and the Alibamos also carried devastation down the 
river. The fair Mobilian country as far south as the Gulf was 
indeed the scene of invasion and ruin never to be repaired.^ 
But, as we have seen, the actual rearrangement of nations 
was within much narrower bounds. The Mobilians, Alibamos, 
and Muscogees were of the same race. 

The Natchez, with their sun-worship and ever-burning 
sacred fire, are said to have emigrated from Mexico and settled 
on the bluffs where a city perpetuates their name, while the 
Cherokees had reached the headwaters of the Tennessee River 

1 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 22, n., 78. 2 King's Bienville, p. 122. 



22 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

from the east. They alone of southern Indians claim to have 
come from the north. 

Between these the Chickasaws, unconquered and unconquer- 
able, held the land from the upper Bigbee to the Mississippi 
Eiver, and the more timid Choctaws, in four thousand families, 
lived as before on the lower Bigbee, extending southwardly to 
near the Gulf. The Naniabas ("Fish-eaters"), of Choctaw 
origin, were near the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee 
rivers, and lower down on the Mobile were the Choctaw 
Thomez, or Tohomes. Coxe teUs us that INIaubila, shorn of its 
old grandeur, existed even after 1715, but he must refer to the 
surviving Mobilians who lived near the Thomes, in all three 
hundred and fifty families.^ For while the name " Holy Spirit " 
was on Spanish maps and copied on foreign ones, the natives 
persisted in calling the river and bay Mobile. Indeed, it is said 
to have been the native name in De Soto's time,^ the explorer 
La Salle, in 1685, recognizes and adopts it,^ and it was called 
Movila, also, by the Spaniards. 

On the whole, however, there is, despite tradition and 
romance, no reason to suppose that the conquest of Mexico by 
Cortez had any appreciable effect on the Indians of the north 
Gulf region, and none that the subsequent expedition of De Soto 
found or left these Indians in any materially different location 
or condition from that in which we find them in later times. To 
this there may be some exceptions, as in the migration of the 
Alibamos eastwardly, if they be indeed the later Alibamons, 
and certainly in the destruction of ]Maubila and the removal of 
the remaining Mobilians southwardly to their later home on the 
Mobile River below the forks of the Tombigbee and Alabama. 

But the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Muscogees, Cherokees, Ca- 
tawbas, and other prominent tribes seem to be too settled and 
agricultural to have had in De Soto's time any different seats 
from those where history finds them at the end of this period 
of obscurity.^ If we do not always recognize them in the 
stilted Spanish narratives, it probably is due less to change of 
races than to inadequacy in the description. 

^ King's Bienville, p. 129 ; Coxe's Carolana, p. 235 (2 French's Historical 
Collection). 
2 Meek's Southwest, p. 227, n. 

'' Quoted iu Scaife's America, p. 169 ; 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 233, 111. 
* Gatsehet's Creek Migration Legend, p. -19 ; Pickett's Alabama, p. 134. 



PART II. 
THE FRENCH CAPITAL. 

1670, 1699-1722. 



CHAPTER V. 

FEOM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 

The history of the Gulf in the latter part of the seventeenth 
century becomes closely connected with that of Canada. It 
was from that French possession that the Mississippi River 
was explored to the sea, and it was from Mobile that Cana- 
dians under royal commission colonized the great valley and 
built forts reaching up to portages to the Great Lakes. For 
explorers and colonists we are indebted to that dominion, and 
particularly to Montreal. 

The seventeenth century was the epoch of French and Eng- 
lish colonization in North America, as the sixteenth had been 
that of the Spanish in Central and South America. Virginia, 
in 1607, preceded Canada by but one year, and the Mayflower 
brought her famous cargo while French explorers and mission- 
aries were pushing up the Great Lakes and the country behind 
was becoming the seat of French civilization. Quebec was 
much like a town in France, and Montreal, though near the 
frontier, was as Ville Marie becoming a settled place under 
the priests of St. Sulpice. 

The discovery by De Soto had been forgotten even in Spain, 
and no maps pointed out the Mississippi River, although 
Mobile Bay remained well known. And yet, as the French 
explored the lakes and came in contact with the Sioux and 
other Indians near the sources of the Mississippi, they could 
not but learn rumors of the great river. Possibly the earliest 
to report it was Claude Allouez, first missionary to that tribe, ^ 
and from time to time others added information. Where it 
emptied no one knew, — possibly into the Atlantic, near Vir- 
ginia, possibly into the Gulf of Mexico, or perhaps even into 
the Pacific about California. 

^ Scaife's America, p. 156. For life of La Salle, see Parkman's Discovery 
of the Great West. 



26 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

One thing was certain, — the way was long and dangerous. 
Even hardy wood rangers like Duluth were not ambitious to 
make the exploration. The journey might be made by canoe, 
for the interlocking of the sources of western rivers with those 
emptying into the Great Lakes had not escaped the quick eyes 
of the French. This knowledge was to develop into a well- 
ascertained system of portages, by which canoes were carried 
with little trouble over the few miles of divide between the 
sources of rivers and launched on other streams. But the hos- 
tility of savages and difficulty of long subsistence in a wild 
country were serious obstacles. 

Robert Cavelier, of Rouen, more commonly known as La 
Salle, passed over a portage from the lakes into the upper 
Ohio about 1670, and descended at least to the site of Louis- 
ville. He seems then to have gone no further. The same 
adventurous spirit nerved the trader, Louis Joliet, but the 
higher inspiration of religious enthusiasm impelled the Jesuit, 
Pere Marquette, in their voyage of 1673. Going down the 
Illinois, they found the mighty Mississippi and rowed on it to 
the Arkansas Indians, not without dangers from man and 
nature both. Marquette, from his adoration of Mary, named 
the stream for the Immaculate Conception. 

But these efforts were tentative. La Salle was to be the 
true explorer. He inspired the French court not less than the 
new governor, Frontenac, and in Henry de Tonty, a French 
soldier whom he brought to America on the recommendation 
of his patron. Prince de Conti, he had an assistant who was to 
do more for him than court and governor together. La Salle 
spent years in preparation; for he was to take a force along 
to awe the natives, and money and merchandise to trade with 
them. He built Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, constructed 
a boat on Lake Erie, crossed the portage from Lake Michigan 
to the Kankakee, and, after losses and discouragement, founded 
in 1680 his Fort Crevecoeur on the Illinois River, not far from 
the modern Peoria. 

The brilliant pages of Parkman tell not only of the over- 
whelming misfortunes of La SaUe, but also of a silent deter- 
miiiation which overcame them all. In the early spring of 
1682, the voyagers were floating on the Mississippi, which he 
renamed for Colbert, the great French minister, and they 



FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 27 

gradually descended to its mouths. The Mexican Gulf at last 
spread before them. La Salle had made his name immortal. 
With fitting ceremonies, April 2, 1682, on a dry place near 
the sea, he took possession of the valley of the Mississippi and 
its tributaries and named it Louisiana for Louis XIV., king of 
France and Navarre. A notary recorded the facts, and among 
the witnesses we find Tonty and Nicolas de la Salle, the ex- 
plorer's nephew. 

La Salle proposed to make French possession sure by a col- 
ony on the sea and one or more forts on the river, but had to 
defer this until he could obtain aid and authority from France. 
So they laboriously reascended the river. 

La Salle left Tonty as his deputy in America, and returned 
to France. He was the hero of the day, and secured all that 
he asked, for his Gulf colony would not merely give the French 
a foothold, but gradually make this great river as much an 
artery of New France as was the Canadian St. Lawrence. All 
France, from court to peasantry, followed the movements of 
this resolute man. 

Beaujeu commanded the little fleet upon which La Salle and 
his colonists, in 1685, sailed for the Gulf. They missed the 
mouths of the Mississippi, and landed near Matagorda Bay in 
the present Texas. There Beaujeu abandoned him, and appar- 
ently sailed back to discover and himself map the Mississippi 
passes. This is a serious charge, but Parkman seems borne out 
by the facts, and the whole history of the French in America 
is unfortunately marred by such quarrels of leaders. We see 
it in Canada; we shall find it on the Gulf. 

The colony was rendered helpless by loss of vessels and 
stores, and La Salle saw nothing to do but go overland to 
Canada. Could he even reach Tonty in his Fort St. Louis, on 
Starved Rock, among the Illinois, all might be well. But 
some of his followers were desperate characters, and he died 
near Trinity River by the assassin's bullet. His brother and 
Joutel finally escajied to Tonty, and it is at least a satisfaction 
to record that his murderers perished. 

His colony perished, too, and his plans died with him. 
Tonty had descended the river to meet him, and left a letter 
with some Indians, but, learning of La Salle's death, Tonty 
confined himself to the Illinois region. There, in 1690, he 



28 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

was by the government granted an interest in tliat rock fort, 
and he engaged in trade with the upper Mississippi. De Soto, 
Moscoso, La Salle himself, had suffered in exploring the river. 
It seemed as if the legends that evil spirits guarded the stream 
were true. 

Times changed also. While the settlements in Mexico and 
east Florida, on which haughty Spain relied to prove her claim 
to all the Gulf, were more vulnerable because the mother coun- 
try had sunk from her proud preeminence, the English colo- 
nies on the Atlantic coast were growing fast. Englishmen 
were to be heard of on the Mississippi, and even the fiction of 
an English discovery was broached. ^ It was still the great 
age of Louis XIV., who recognized no rights which hindered 
the grandeur of France; but it was the age, too, of William 
III. of England. France could not in Europe undo the work 
of the English Revolution of 1688, and in America did not go 
forward, excepting only the annexation of San Domingo. 

We followed La Salle from Canada, and at the time of that 
explorer's death in Texas several of the Montreal family of 
Lemoyne, who should carry on his work, were winning laurels 
from the English in Hudson's Bay. Charles Lemoyne had 
emigrated from Dieppe in 1641, and in Canada gradually 
climbed the ladder of fame and fortune. He was soldier, in- 
terpreter, garde magasin, proctireur general, and, as proprietor 
of that estate, died Sieur de Longueuil.^ Of his twelve chil- 
dren, three sons died in the wars with England and all became 
well known. The oldest, Charles, succeeded to the title, and 
was as a father to the youngest, Jean Baptiste, to be Sieur de 
Bienville. Of the others, Iberville, Chateauguay (also spelled 
Chasteaugue and Chateaugue), Serigny, and St. Helene will 
often meet us, and the sister who married Noyan, or Noyant, 
became mother of men whom we will know. 

Iberville was perhaps the most noted of these sailor brothers, 
and, besides his conquest of Newfoundland, is famous for a 
combat near Fort Nelson, where his vessel, the Pelican, con- 
tended with three English ones. The result was that Iberville 
captured one and put the other two to flight. In this battle 

1 Adair {American Indians, p. 308) says Wood discovered it in 1654, fol- 
lowed by Bolton in 1670, and that Cox's two ships entered the mouth in 1698. 

2 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. xxii. 



FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 29 

Bienville commanded a battery. Such exploits marked Iber- 
ville out for great enterprises, and, after the Peace of Ryswick 
of 1697, he was to be selected by the minister of the marine 
for service in another part of the world. 

A map of 1699, dedicated to William III. of Great Britain, 
was made by the Recollect Hennepin, a missionary, and shows 
the knowledge of the day. The Great River, Meschasyj^y, is 
there first depicted, and east, entirely distinct from that stream, 
is the large harbor of Spirito Sancto, with Chicagua as the name 
of the Mobile River. ^ Virginia, New Netherlands, and New 
England fill up the coast until we reach New France or Canada, 
while in the other direction we find on the Gulf of Mexico the 
province of New Spain. No tribes are shown near the Chicagua 
River, except Cosa far to the northeast near some mountains, 
while many are placed on the Mississippi, — lyingly, as Bien- 
ville had later to declare on trying to find them.^ The father 
clearly had not explored the interior near the bay of the Holy 
Spirit. 

But the curiosity of the French was now thoroughly directed 
to the Mississippi region. Remonville visited America, and 
in 1697 wrote a full memorial, urging colonization of the 
region about the Great River, despite La Salle's failure. The 
idea grew that the Mississij)pi valley was to be a part of New 
France, which as Canada should front the Atlantic on the 
north, as Louisiana front the GuK of Mexico on the south, 
and constitute an empire worthy even of the Grand Monarque.'^ 
French forts along the gTeat lakes and rivers would protect the 
trading-posts, serve as strategic and diplomatic centres for 
French influence among the Indian tribes, and thus hem in the 
English colonies between the mountains and the sea. May- 
hap these would be driven into the ocean whence they came, 
and the Latin races of France and Spain under their family 
compact catholicize and dominate the whole northern continent. 
For the French, like the Spaniards, wished to convert, as well 
as rule, the natives. Besides Jesuits among the northern In- 
dians, those missionaries of the Seminary of Quebec, Father 
Montigny at the Natchez and Antoine Davion on his bluff 

1 Scaife's America, map 9. 

2 King's Bienville, p. 60. 

8 See recitals in Crozat's charter of 1712, 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 178, 



30 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

lower among the Tonicas, were the advance guard in the great 
valley for the lilies and the cross. 

The minister of the marine and colonies had been Louis de 
Phelypeaux, Comte de Pontchar train. In 1G99, he was suc- 
ceeded by his son Jerome, at first called Maurepas, but also 
known as Pontchartrain, who had for some years been co- 
minister with the father. His zeal for Louisiana was quick- 
ened by learning that the renegade Recollect, Father Hennepin, 
had interested William in the Mississippi, and that an English 
company was organizing under the patronage of that king. 
France must take possession first. 

The minister selected Iberville to carry on the work dropped 
by La Salle. After the necessary preparations, the frigates 
Badine under that commander, and Marin under the Comte de 
Surgeres, sailed from Brest October 24, 1698, to discover the 
mouth of the Mississippi and colonize the country. ^ There 
were also two transports, originally Norman fishing-boats, and 
at San Domingo they were joined by the corvette Francois 
under Chateaumorant, nephew of the great Tourville. Bien- 
ville was midshipman under his brother. 

Sighting land off the coast of Florida, in the last days of 
January, 1699, they found Pensacola just occupied by the 
Spaniards, and proceeded westward, exploring as they went. 
They cast anchor January 31 off Mobile Point, and carefully 
examined what was later to be the chief seat of their colony. 

One of the transports stranded in bad weather while sound- 
ing, but came off with the tide. Iberville soon determined to 
explore for himself, and was rowed with Bienville to the point. 
Despite a storm that night, next day they sounded the channel, 
but then had to run before the wind and make the lonsf western 
island. This they named Massacre, from the heap of skulls 
and bones found with Indian utensils at the southwestern ex- 
tremity. There they were weather-bound for three days, and 
hunted bustards (outardes). 

Iberville made his way over to the mainland, and noted the 
flowers, and the oak, pine, walnut, chestnut, and other un- 
known trees of the forest. From a white oak top, four leagues 
up the bay, he took in the outline of the shore of the bay, and 
even noticed yellow water from the rivers. He saw signs of 

1 4 Margry's Decouvertes, pp. liii, 98, 213, 232. 



FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 31 

recent Indians, and fired his gun and cut on a tree a sign of his 
peaceful visit. 

Such was the French discovery and exploration of Mobile 
Point, Dauphine Island, and the land of Mon Louis Island. 
But their present objective was further west. The sounding of 
the channel was completed in good weather, a good harbor found 
off Massacre Island by Surgeres, and, after taking on wood and 
grass for the livestock, the fleet sailed on to find the Missis- 
sippi. ^ 

On the way they visited and named the islands of the sound, 
and had friendly intercourse with the Indians of Biloxi. The 
mouth of the great river they found on March 2, after much 
trouble and no little danger, for it was hidden in sandbanks, 
reeds, and logs like a palisade. Unfortunate La Salle could 
not see it from the sea, but Iberville was as fortunate here as 
in everything else he undertook. 

The details of the subsequent exploration are not germane 
here. Suffice it, Iberville went upstream in boats as far as 
the Oumas, and returned to his ships by Bayou Manchac, to 
be named for himself. Bienville returned by the main stream, 
and, promising a hatchet, induced Indians to produce the letter 
which Tonty had written fourteen years before. This left no 
doubt that the river was the Mississijjpi, and further explora- 
tions were to convince them that Hennepin had never been on 
it below the Ohio. 

The result of the exploration was that, while Bienville was 
to maintain a fort at a comparatively dry place some leagues 
above the mouth, Iberville decided that the swift, tortuous 
stream did not admit of sail navigation nor its marshy banks 
of habitation. A site for his colonial enterprise must be found 
on the seashore further east. 

Mr. Green begins his great history of the English people by 
a study of their condition in the forests of Germany before the 
migration to Great Britain. Somewhat similarly can Fort de 
Maurepas, now built by Iberville on the Back Bay of Biloxi, 
be claimed as original Mobile. On that bluff behind the Louis- 
ville and Nashville railroad bridge Mr. Portevant, under his 
beautiful oaks, commanding so peaceful a prospect over the 
water, still digs up hatchets, cannon-balls, and even iron shoes 
1 King's Bienville, p. 21 ; 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 98, 99. 



82 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

of tout or tlag pole^j. Thoiv, bovouil Joiibt. isooms to hnvo boon 
Fort do Muiuvpa."*, aiul tho littlo glado to the south, in whoso 
slioltoi* givw so nuiuY kinds of tivos, was onoo oonxmandovl bv 
Frtuioh ojunvon. Iborvillo slopt ini tho sjvt whioh ho soUn'tod, 
and snjwvistHl tho onvtion of his fort, l.iko tho latov Fovt 
Louis, it had foui* bastions, of \vl\ioli two woiv of stookado and 
two of logs. It was guaixiod by twolvo oannon, ai\d soonis to 
have Won sunvundod by a palisado bosidos. Thoiv was no 
town laid ont, howovov, and in taot this was intondod only as 
a toinporary sottloniont. Thoiv tlio Pasoagv>nlas. C\ii>inans, 
Chioaohas. Pasiiivoolas. and Uiloxi oanio to snioko tho oahunot 
with Iborvillo.^ 

Tho map ditiwn by F. elonssotto for this oooasion, still piv- 
sorvoil in tho Aivhivos of tho ^latino at Taxis, shows a ohannol 
of seven foot out p\st Poor Island O^h' :iu C'hoviouilX on 
wliioh woiv Indian oabins. From thoro on, tho wator rap- 
idly dtvponod to twenty foot at Ship Island (^Islo Fram;oise 
thon^, whore on tho north side was tho anohorage for vessels. 
On this island were largo ponds whoiv they watered. This 
inteivsting ehart also shows tho eoast fumx ** Pasoabonla " 
Eiver on the east, faeing Horn Island i^lslo an AigloX v>nt be- 
yond Isle Konde, and extends as far west as opjH^sito enrionsly 
shaped Isle Bourbon, now Cat Island. IVtweon Ship anil Cat 
islands, but noaivr tho former, was the Tass Jordy, having 
twenty-tlnvo foot deinh. 

At tho entranee of Biloxi l>ay. perhaps not far from the 
pivsent railivad out, it was proposed to build a battery to 
defend tho entranee. but only in ease tho eourt tixed tho I'olony 
at Biloxi. It is doubtful, therefore, whether this fortitioation 
was orootod. 

Tho tirst eomnxandant at l>ilo\i was Sauvolo, hardly a bro- 
ther of Iberville as olaimed by (.Kiyarn\ tho major was I^ovas- 
senr KussouoUe, and the g-iwrison eonsisted of eighty men.'-^ 
Bienville on the Mississippi devoted nnu'h time to exploring 
that river and its tributaries, as did Sauvolo to exainiuatiou and 
sounding of the eoast. The latter thus disi'ovorod a harbor at 
the oast end of Dauphiiu^ Island, and fron\ tho ^lobile Indians 
learned the fertility of their river eonutry. 

^ Ponioant in '> Margry, Diann'trtes, p. o78. 
8 4 Margery, Dicouvcrtes, pp. xxxii, xxxiii. 




"/ir^^^-tr 



V / ^ vV' 




^^ 



^■J ..III I ! 












XEPARTfCVL 



7 i 




FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 35 

macy, and in it lie read the future as an unsealed book. The 
claim of Spain to monopoly, he showed, was without basis, 
and, worse than that, would soon be disputed by that Protes- 
tant country whose rulers recognized no papal gifts, whose pio- 
neers on the American seaboard were increasing at a rate that 
would soon take them across the mountains to contend for the 
valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries. In less than a 
hundred years, ^ said this prophet, the English, unless opposed 
by growth and persistence like their own, would occupy the 
whole of America. And so they did. One hundred and one 
years later, this people, as a new nation, were actually to buy 
from France that Louisiana which Iberville was now founding ! 

^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. xli. 



CHAPTER VI. 

FOUNDING FOKT LOUIS. 

On one or more of his exploring expeditions from Biloxi, 
Iberville traversed the Mobile country, and seems to have 
selected it as the seat of his colony. Penicaut accompanied 
him, and to him we are indebted for perhaps the first de- 
tailed description of the bay and river that has come down 
to us.i 

Our Bayou La Batre they named Riviere D'Erbane for a 
Frenchman lost there ; Cedar Point, Pointe aux Huistres from 
the great abundance of oysters. Penicaut's dates may not 
always be correct, although he says he made his entries at the 
time of the events, but he is a good measurer. The mainland, 
he says, was two leagues from Massacre Island, and then it 
was nine leagues to the river. Two leagues below this Mobile 
River, which name he here uses, is Dog River, and two further. 
Fowl River. He gives no reason for any of the names. Dogs 
and deer they might have seen, but the only Indians known to 
have had domestic fowls were the Arkansas, for there La Salle 
found chickens and geese in 1682, and the Bayogoulas, whose 
stock came from a shij)wreck.^ Could Maldonado or other 
Spaniards have introduced fowls on tlie shores of Mobile Baj-, 
or was not this river, and its Isle aux Oies, named from the 
wild-fowl even not yet extinct? 

The bay was five leagues wide, and a league above the mouth 
of the river they found a confluent which they named St. Mar- 
tin. It must be the later Bayou Marmotte, or the one after- 
wards renamed for Chateaugiiay, — One and Three Mile creeks 
respectively. A league further was the Riviere a Boutin, and 
this was probably our Chickasabogue. 

On the upper bay and river they discovered a fine country. 
^ Penicaut in 5 Marorry, Decouvertes, pp. 383, 422. 
^ Parkman's Great West, p. 275 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 143. 



FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 37 

The woods contained all the timber needed for the French 
navy, and Iberville had a dim vision of sawmills and of a 
great timber port. Twelve leagues up, on both sides of the 
river, they found the Mobile Indians (probably about Mt. 
Vernon Landing), already known to them at Biloxi. All the 
many Indians were friendly, and the Mobilian dialect was an 
important one, as it was the inter-tribal language of the GuK 
races, the trade jargon from the Mississippi to the ocean. 

Some point near the mouth of this river would serve Iber- 
ville's purpose very well, even better than the Natchez site 
first thought of by him. It would be near enough Pensacola 
to keep an eye on the Spaniards, near enough the Mississippi 
to be the port for the valley trade, which could come through 
Bayou Manchac, the lakes, and the sound, behind sheltering 
islands, to Mobile Bay, and with a fort on the Mississippi 
delta could guard the great river. Then also, with its easy 
communication by the Tombigbee Eiver to the northwest and 
the Alabama to the northeast, it gave means of influence among 
the strong Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Alibamon Indians, and 
even access over the mountains, in case of war, to the English 
colonies of Carolina and Virginia. 

It appears that Iberville selected the new site before return- 
ing to Europe, and when he sailed back towards the end of 
1701, his plans were all made and ready for execution. They 
were sanctioned by Pontchartrain, but the selection of the site 
was Iberville's own work. 

In the fall of 1701, Pontchartrain sent Iberville out in the 
Renommee, with the Palmier and traversler, for the express 
purpose of settling the Mobile region. ^ The daring fighter 
was transformed into a practical colonizer. We find him insist- 
ing on Spanish sheep for the colony instead of French, which 
he deemed inferior, a staUion to imj^rove the American breed 
(which, if native, must have been of Spanish extraction, for 
the Indians originally had no horses), and taking only such 
things and people as were essential to the development of the 
country. No one realized better than he the sturdiness neces- 
sary for pioneers, and that the strength of the English colonies 
was in the kind of men sent out. He wanted no dependents, 

1 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp., lix, 501-504, 512, 530. See 1 Martin's 
Louisiana, p. 152. 



38 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

for the weakness of French colonies, he said, lay in sending 
out the poor and giving them no start. ^ 

He called at San Domingo, and there refitted his vessels, 
and took on horses, cattle, and swine for the new colony. Ig- 
norant of Sauvole's death, he sent word to him to remove to 
Mobile River. When he reported, November 24, to Pontchar- 
train from Pensacola, Iberville seems still not to know Sau- 
vole's fate. There the governor was himself to be seriously ill 
with an abscess in the side, but finally, on December 17, 1701, 
despite the protest of the Spanish, he gave orders to abandon 
Blloxi and move everything to Massacre Island for greater 
convenience in making the new settlement. 

During the days of transition to the new year, Biloxl and 
Massacre Island were scenes of activity. On January 3, Iber- 
ville sent a lanclie or felouque, loaned him by the Spanish 
governor, Martinez, from Pensacola to the Island with Serigny 
and Chasteaugue to join their brother Bienville, who, with 
forty men, arrived two days later In the traversier from Biloxl. 
Nicholas de la Salle (whom we have seen with his greater kins- 
man in 1682) came from Pensacola with his family in the caiche 
chartered by Iberville with the lanche to carry eighty workmen 
and the king's stores. On January 10, Bienville, Serigny, and 
Le Vasseur in the lanche and two felouques left Massacre Island 
by order of Iberville to occupy Mobile, " sixteen leagues off, at 
the second bluff." 

We can be sure that the imfinished magazines on Daui)hlne 
Island, left for completion in charge of Chasteaugue and La 
Salle, were at the eastern end, where It Is widest and accessible 
from both bay and gulf, for there was the harbor of twenty-one 
feet depth shown Iberville by a Spanish pilot. But where was 
this fort on the river, the original site of Mobile ? 

The direction and the journal of Iberville, the account of 
Penlcaut, tradition, and physical remains all unite to fix the 
location. Sixteen leagues from Massacre Island at the second 
bluff Is at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff. Near there Creoles still 
fondly point out the site of "VIeux Fort," and there French 
maps, as early as 1744, place a "vIeux fort, detruit." A well 
under a hickory-tree still marks the spot, and bullets, canister, 
crockery, large-headed spike, and a brass ornament were picked 
^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 586, 604, 626. 



FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 39 

up by the present writer near the river edge of the level bluff 
as late as the summer of 1897. 

There, then, on a wooded spot, twenty feet above the river, 
hardly deserving the name of bluff, safe above ordinary high 
water, was Fort Louis de la Louisiane, commanding the wide, 
turbid river. It was not one of the many Forts St. Louis. 
Like Louisiana, it was named from Louis XIV. rather than 
for the sainted Louis IX. 

Nowadays, when we lay a corner-stone, we have imposing 
ceremonies to commemorate the occasion, but when and how 
the first spadeful of Mobile earth was dug and post driven we 
do not know. Pontchartrain had, in the preceding summer, 
already ordered the occupation of the post, and Penicaut puts 
the beginning of work in 1701, and says Boisbriant arrived 
before Bienville ; but the carpenter must be wrong. The jour- 
nal must be correct. We can hardly suppose that ground was 
broken much before the middle of Janviary, 1702. We can 
see the young Bienville — he was but twenty-two — carefully 
select the spot and superintend felling the virgin forest for 
room and material for Fort Louis. The woods found were 
white and red oak, bay, sassafras, Cottonwood (hois blanc), 
walimt, and especially tall pines. ^ 

The fort was of logs, "piece upon piece," sixty toises or 
fathoms square, with four bastions thirty feet long, having 
six guns at each corner advanced in semicircle. Within were 
four buildings, — chapel, gouvernement and officers' quarters, 
magasins and guard (corps de garde), and in the centre a 
parade of forty-five toises square. The barracks, however, for 
the privates and Canadians were outside, one hundred and fifty 
paces to the left, upstream, on the bank of the river. Such 
is the description of Iberville and of Penicaut. La Salle adds 
that there was by the river a powder magazine twenty-four feet 
square by ten deep. This, we learn, got filled for a time by 
the heavy rains. ^ 

1 See 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. Ix, 503, 512, 514, 531. For Penicaut's 
account, 5 Ibid., p. 423. The error of Pickett and others in placing the 
settlement on Dog River could not be made now with the contemporary 
maps and documents before us. At best it rests on a misreading of Bar- 
tram. There was a magasin at the mouth of Dog River, but nothing more. 

2 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. lix, 512, 515, 530 ; 5 Ihid., pp. 423, 424. 



40 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Iberville found difficulty getting his traversier even into the 
port at Dauphine Island during a northwest wind, and so di- 
rected Bienville to build a lighter or ferry-boat (with flat bot- 
tom, but pointed at the ends) to carry fifty-five tons and draw 
four and a half feet only. 

Iberville never forgot that Mobile was to be the centre of 
French influence; the only place which, as he expressed it, 
could protect America against the English. While still sick 
at Pensacola, he sent two Canadians to Mobile (for Iberville 
gives the place this name from the start), with directions for 
Bienville to let Tonty have ten picked men to go to the Choc- 
taws and Chickasaws. Tonty was to make peace between them, 
and by presents bring them to the new establishment to con- 
clude treaties with the French. ^ 

By the middle of February, Iberville had so far recovered 
as to sail on his ship Palmier for Massacre Island, but it was 
not until the 18th that the unfavorable northwest wind permit- 
ted him to enter over the bar, which was an eighth of a league 
from land, and had twenty-one feet. The harbor itself, be- 
tween Massacre and a little (Pelican) island, showed thirty feet 
of water. It pleased him much by its easy defense and its pro- 
tection from the wind on the north, northwest, and southwest, 
due to these islands, and on the northeast and east by the "east 
point of Mobile " two leagues away. He could not but fear, 
however, that a south gale might change the bar, — a fear 
which we shall have occasion to remember. 

In this port he found Marigny, his traversier beached by a 
south wind as she was discharging what she had brought from 
Havana and Biloxi. Digging away sand and tying on empty 
casks did no good, and she lay there imtil a high tide on 
the 23d took her off. Meantime Iberville had to charter Fil- 
let's caicJie for five hundred livres to take provisions to the 
Mississippi fort. On it returned thither Gravier, superior of 
the Jesuit missions of the Illinois, and some voyagenrs, come 
to discuss religion and trade. The beaver (castor') question was 
a troublesome one on account of Canadian jealousy, but Iber- 
ville promised provisions next year, and present transportation 
of their skins to France. The English were trying to attract 
them to trade with Carolina over the Ohio River (Ouabache). 
^ 4 Margry, De'couvertes, pp. 507, 581. 



FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 41 

Another important question was faced by Iberville at Massa- 
cre Island. Even during the brief Blloxi experiment, the secre- 
tary (escrivain), who had charge of the stores, claimed to have 
the right to direct everything. Iberville writes laconically that 
this man (Crasse) is going back to France. La Salle was 
acting as commissary (Jaisant fonction de commissaire) and 
applies to the minister of the marine for full appointment as 
such. His zeal had already led him to meddle, and Iberville 
thought best to establish a garde magasin, or keeper of the 
royal stores, in the person of Girard. He was to deliver goods, 
e. g., as presents to the savages, upon the order of La Salle, 
but La Salle was simply to carry out the instructions of the 
commandant.^ 

Iberville had been detained at the island by contrary winds, 
and on February 29 he sailed for Mobile, apparently with 
the two pinasses and a chaloiqje, leaving one chaloiipe, how- 
ever, for La Salle to come on with his family. The governor 
kept his eyes open as he proceeded, and describes the lands 
very fully. He slept at a little river, elsewhere called Dog 
River, which had four or five feet at the mouth, and was bor- 
dered by high land, growing oak, pine, bay, beech, and elm. 
The next day he made three leagues, seeing mainly the swampy 
islands, for the river (Mobile) was high. March 2 he made 
six leagues, noting the fine cypress and some good land, and 
next day at a league and a half he found the establishment 
(Sfabllssement). His figures add up about twenty-eight miles 
from the river mouth. The lands above the fort he pronounces 
"perfectly beautiful," and he was especially struck with the 
fine pines. One he had cut to supply a mast lost by the 
Palmier in a West Indian storm, and In three days it was 
ready, and sent to Massacre Island. 

He seemed satisfied with the progress made on fort and boat, 
and sent Bienville to explore the country. Bienville found on 
the banks and many adjacent islands places abandoned by the 
savages on account of war with Conchaques and Alibamons. 
An Important discovery was that of five clay figures worshiped 
by the Mobillans. They were of a man, woman, child, bear, 
and owl, — the work, Iberville thought, of some follower of De 
Soto. They were shown Bienville by an Indian only when he 
^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 510, 529. 



42 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

bribed him witli the present of a gun, and were in the canes 
on a little hill near an ancient, destroyed village. The savage 
would not approach the heaven-descended gods nearer than ten 
paces, and then only backwards. When they were carried ofF, 
the Indians could not understand why the gods to whom the 
Mobilians sacrificed did not strike dead the impious white men. 

The most natural location for this sanctuary would be that 
great mound to the northeast on what is now Bottle Creek, if 
"petit costeau" can be applied to a hill about fifty feet high; 
but any of the many shell banks will fairly suit the descrijstion. 
From about Twenty-one Mile Bluff upwards, the west shores 
of the river are habitable, and above as well as even lower 
down the opposite islands between the Mobile and Tensaw can 
and have been used. The figures were ultimately taken to 
France by the governor. 

On February 6, Iberville himself began exj)loring by try- 
ing to find on these islands a waterfall for a sawmill and for 
a tannery. He was unsuccessful, but shortly afterwards took 
a felouque to visit the upper Indians. Three leagues up, he 
noted the end of the delta, and found the river a mile and a 
half wide, with a depth of five or six fathoms. On both banks 
he saw deserted habitations, but also on banks and islands, 
from four to a dozen cabins together, the two tribes of Mobil- 
ians and Tohomes who will become so well known to us. The 
Mobilians were six leagues above the fort, and therefore about 
the present Mt. Vernon (or Fort Stoddert) landing. The 
Tohomes, he says, were eight leagues above the establishment, 
which would be about Nanna Ilubba Bluff. Their true seat was 
higher, at Mcintosh's Bluff, but, as Iberville does not mention 
the Naniabes, he may have considered them all Tohomes. He 
must have had his sextant along, for he locates the main 
Tohome village of eight or ten cabins at 31° 22', which an- 
swers very fairly for Mcintosh's. The villages of both nations 
were near the river, connected by good horse-paths. He found 
the inhabitants industrious agriculturists. Their language was 
the same as the Bayogoula. 

Iberville returned to the fort in a few days, but sent back 
to buy corn (bled d^ Inde), of which he got three chaloupes 
full. He had to supply Pensacola with provisions also, — fifty 
barrels of flour already, to grow to a hundred quintals. 



FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 43 

He now set about laying out his city, despite the incessant 
rain, and spent March 20-23 in aligning the streets and lo- 
cating the inhabitants. This we may suppose was along the 
lower sloj)e north of the fort, to secure easier access to the 
river. Besides the officials, he had four families of colonists. 
He had brought from San Domingo for his colony a horse, 
three mares, twenty cows, besides numerous pigs. He says 
the people called the place Mobile, — "que nous nommons 
la Mobile," although we know the official name was Fort 
Louis. No plan has survived, nor do our authorities give 
street names, but there is every reason to believe that Royal, 
Conti, and Dauphin were known there as well as at the later 
settlement. 

One of the settlers, a master tanner, was lost in the woods, and 
went twelve days without food. He was preparing for death 
when found by some hunters under a tree on a hill, by a grave 
which he had dug. At its foot he had planted a cross, bearing 
an account of his mishap. 

On Sunday, March 25, Tonty returned with seven chiefs 
and principal men of the Chickasaws (Chicachas) and four 
Choctaw chiefs. Iberville made them presents of considerable 
powder, ball, and lead, twelve guns, besides hatchets, knives, 
kettles (chaucWeres), beads, gun flints, and other small things 
{dinquaillene). Next day he addressed them in due form, 
Bienville acting as interpreter, exhorting the two nations to 
conclude peace and abandon the English, who only aimed at 
making slaves of them. He cited the death of over eighteen 
hundred Choctaws, and capture of over five hundred prisoners 
sold away, and the loss of over eight hundred Chickasaws dur- 
ing this war of eight or ten years. If they would drive out the 
English, he would make the Illinois cease war upon them, and 
would establish a trading station, where they could obtain all 
kinds of goods in exchange for skins of beef, deer, and bear. 

The talk was satisfactory, and general peace was arranged. 
Word was sent to the Illinois, to "Davy on" among the Toni- 
cas, Foucaut among the Akansas, St. Cosme at the Nadeches 
(Natchez), and the governor wrote also to the grand vicar of 
Quebec, at the Tamaroas, to send missionaries among the 
Chickasaws and Choctaws as soon as possible. With the 
returnino' Chickasaws was sent back a little St. Michel child to 



44 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

learn the language. Iberville heard much that he would find 
useful as to numbers and location of the several tribes. The 
promised trading-post was to be established on the upj)er 
Mobile River between the two tribes, three or four leagues 
from the Chaquechoumas and twelve or fifteen from the Chick- 
asaws. 

Having founded his colony, Iberville, leaving six months' 
stores, set out on his return to the Palmier at Massacre Island. 
In the river, on his way, he took soundings, and found at least 
five and one half to six feet of water. He" slept at Dog River, 
where he had established a magasin, which Chasteaugue in 
the traversier and Grandville in the chaloupe had been busy 
filling. Becancourt, who had been quite useful, was taken 
from the Renommee, of which he was enseigne^ and put in 
charge of the traversier. 

On March 31, the Renomm(5e, towing the Palmier, went over 
the bar in twenty -one to twenty -two feet of water, and made for 
Pensacola. There they took on beaver-skins and minor peltries, 
brought by the caiche from the Mississij)pi, and sailed for 
Havana and France.^ 

Thus Fort Louis, the first Mobile, was founded. It was to 
guard the Mississippi entrance, be the capital of vast Louisi- 
ana, the meeting-place for the Indian tribes south of the Great 
Lakes, and the point from which English influence, not only 
in the Alabama regions, but in all the Mississipj)i and Ohio 
valleys, was to be overthrown. Iberville had personally, and 
through priests and traders, mastered the Indian problem, and 
he jiroposed to win the savage to the French side, and keej) the 
English to the Atlantic seaboard. His plans we learn in full 
from a memorial of his. 

The Indians were to be attracted to the French by means 
of river trade. The English could bring their wares only 
by painful overland journeys, crossing the Alleghanies, while 
the French would command the Gulf rivers, in particular the 
Mississippi, with its many tributaries. He would have about 
four grand posts on the Mississippi River, besides the capital 
at Mobile, and would distribute them judiciously. One he 
founded low on the Mississippi, another should be among the 
Arkansas Indians, a third on the Ouabache (our Ohio), and 
^ Iberville's journal in 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 503-523. 



FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 45 

the fourth on the Missouri. Perhaps we may say that he thus 
foresaw the necessity for New Orleans, Memj)his, Louisville, 
and St. Louis, if he did not select their sites. A lake city like 
Chicago would, in his division of territory, belong to the St. 
Lawrence rather than the Mississippi basin, and therefore not 
enter his plans. Mobile was the key, without which, however, 
the other posts were worthless. From Mobile there could be 
communication by horse with even the furthest in fifteen days. 
At each should be a sergeant and corporal with at least ten 
soldiers as a nucleus for a French colony, and the principal 
industry would be tanning buffalo hides and deerskins for ship- 
ment to France via Mobile.^ 

His plans contemplated resettlement of some Indian tribes, 
so as to put them nearer this river commerce and influence. 
We shall see smaller changes made, but none such as this 
daring mind conceived. The total Lidian population that 
should be tributary to the French was, as he figured it, 23,850 
families. Of these the most populous were the Sioux of four 
thousand, the Panis (Pawnees) of two thousand, the Chactas of 
four thousand, the Chicachas of two thousand, and the Con- 
ehaques (Apalachicolas) of two thousand families. The well- 
known Mobilians and Tohomes he put at only three hundred 
and fifty families, the Tonicas and neighbors at three hundred. 
The Illinois and Tamaroua he estimates at eight hundred, the 
Missouri at fifteen hundred, the Quicapou and Maskouten at 
four hundred and fifty, and the Miamis at five hundred fami- 
lies. Except the Maha and Causes (Kansas), the other tribes 
named are small and now less recognizable. 

The first tribal change he contemplated was inducing the 
Indians in the mountains west of Maryland, Carolina, and Vir- 
ginia to settle nearer Mobile, doubtless on the waters we now 
call the Tennessee and Coosa, so as to substitute French for 
English influence. Next was to make the Ouabache (Ohio) of 
use to France. More than one hundred and twenty leagues 
long, it had not an Indian on its banks. There he would settle 
the Illinois, and have them bring to this river highway the 
buffalo-skins of their chase. With the Illinois, the French 
would have one thousand armed men in case of need, and their 
old grounds would then be occupied by the more distant Mas- 
' 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 594, 601-603. 



46 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

koiitens and Kikapoiis, "svho were heretofore given to beaver 
hunting. These woukl be four hundred and fifty friendly 
warriors more. There were as many Miamis, who sold bea- 
vers at Chieagou. In their giving up that trade for biift'alo and 
deer hunting about the Illinois, there would be saved, too, the 
expense of a fort among them. Iberville knew of the Miamis 
from Gravier, superior of their missions. He admits that it 
will injure the beaver trade of Canada, but this will only be in 
order to give it an easier outlet down the Mississippi to Mobile.^ 

The Sioux, also devoted to beavers, were useless where they 
were, as were the Malias and other i)opulous tribes between 
the ^lissouri and the Mississippi. He knew of them through 
Le Sueur, who understood them perfectly. They should be 
placed on the ]\Ionigoua (Des ]\Ioines) Kiver. The Akansas 
Indians were then extinct, and their place on their river he 
would fill with the Kanses, ^lissouris, and Crevas. Like the 
Mahas, they did not use firearms, nor had they heretofore 
traded with Europeans. Up that river were the Manton, and 
among them he would settle the Panis. All these hunted the 
butfalo, and were often at war with the Spaniards of New 
Mexico and their Indian allies. 

Le Sueur was returning to France, and Ilierville recom- 
mended him as suitable to superintend this readjustment of 
nationalities so as to make them more useful to the king. The 
expense, says Iberville, Mould not exceed twelve thousand livres 
for moving all these twelve thousand Indians. Part could even 
be met with knickknacks. In four or five years there could be 
built up a trade of sixty to eighty thousand buffalo hides and 
more than one hundred and fifty thousand deer and other skins, 
which would bring in France more than 2,500,000 livres per 
annum. Each skin Mould yield four or five pounds of good mooI, 
he says, mIucIi brings tM'enty sous, and tM'o pounds of hair at 
ten sous. Besides this, one Mould get each year more than tMO 
hundred thousand livres of other peltry, such as bears, M'olves, 
Mildcats, foxes, martins, etc., M-hose customs duties M'ould 
bring the king annually more than tM'o hundred and fifty thou- 
sand li\'i'es. There M'ould also be the products of numerous 
lead mines, Mhile silver could be found near Xcm' ^Mexico, and 
copper mines were abundant, too.^ 

1 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 587, 595-597. - Ibid., pp. 587, 600, 601. 



FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 47 

But no doubt Iberville dwelt even more fondly on another 
result of these proposed changes. Not to mention tribes fur- 
ther west, he could count on twelve thousand good warriors to 
invade Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina as a part of his plan 
to check, if not annihilate, the English colonies. In this way 
there would be no need of many French soldiers except as 
officers. 

The Canadian company and officials of course looked with 
jealousy on the new colony, and at first claimed control over 
it. That beaver-skins should be taken down the Mississippi 
instead of the St. Lawrence injured their trade and infringed 
what they deemed their rights. Iberville, however, justly re- 
plied that all territory watered by branches of the Mississippi 
RiA'er belonged to Louisiana as a part of his commercial terri- 
tory. ^ A century later, this doctrine was in other hands and 
another tongue to be stated as the right of the West to control 
the mouths of its rivers. Instead of Louisiana's controlling 
the West by its rivers, the West was ultimately, in order to 
secure their navigation, to annex Louisiana. But in the period 
now under review his claim was right, and it received the sanc- 
tion of the king. Governor Callieres of Canada was, in 1701, 
curtly notified that the new province could be better governed 
directly from France than by way of Quebec, and Iberville was 
made its commander-in-chief.^ 

^ 4 Margry, Dtcouvertes, pp. 591, 606. 
^2 Ihid., pp. 585, 622. 



CHAPTER VII. 

BIENVILLE. 

Lonely enough those Frenchmen must" have felt in their 
river fort, far from the sea, and thousands of miles from 
France. Their only neighbors were treacherous savages, their 
hope of subsistence in supplies from home. For these were 
no hardy pioneers, such as the English settling the Atlantic 
coast. Brave enough they were, but many were here for pay 
or adventure, and even those Canadians who thought of Amer- 
ica as their country were rangers {coureui's de hois), and more 
at home in the forest than in the fort. Gentlemen were there, 
but few artisans in the little town overlooking the turbid 
Mobile. 

Yet Bienville, the governor, began his administration under 
not unfavorable circumstances, for he could rely upon Iber- 
ville's influence in France. But the problems before him were 
serious. The Indians immediately tributary to Mobile waters 
must in some way be detached from British as well as Spanish 
interests, the vast Mississippi region explored and gradually 
colonized, and all by means of the rather heterogeneous popu- 
lation under his command. 

Of his lieutenants, St. Denis, Boisbriant, and others we 
have met at Biloxi, and Henri de Tonty we have seen at Iber- 
ville's Indian conference. 

The last, the best and most active of French pioneers, was 
of Italian extraction. His father, for political reasons, had 
moved to France, and there had invented the Tontine system, 
now so familiar in life insurance. The son, Henri, had lost 
a hand in the Sicilian wars of France by the explosion of a 
grenade, but the iron substitute was found perhaps equally 
useful after he came to America with La Salle and gained him 
among the savages the name of the Iron Hand. We have. seen 
him at the discovery of the Mississippi, and cannot but admire 



BIENVILLE. 49 

his faithfulness during the long years at Fort St. Louis, the 
rock of the Illinois. We know his descents of the great river, 
his letter, his entertainment of Cavelier and Joutel, — always 
waiting and watching for the La Salle who was dead in a 
Texan forest. When granted an interest in Fort St. Louis 
and the fur trade, he still watched the river he had helped 
discover, and as soon as he heard of Iberville's expedition, 
descended to meet La Salle's successor. He visited Bienville 
at the fort near the Mississippi mouth, came also to Biloxi to 
see Iberville, as we have seen, induced Indian chiefs to go to 
the first congress held by that Frenchman at Mobile, and now, 
on the abolishment of the Illinois post, he moved to Mobile 
himself. He had hoped to find Iberville again, but, missing 
him, took up his abode at the new fort in order to aid the 
younger brother.^ 

And there was need of colonists of high and low degree, 
although the proposition of the freebooters of Carthagena to 
move their headquarters to Mobile was declined. The total 
population, probably including even slaves and soldiers, was 
about one hundred and thirty persons,^ and, if Penicaut's date 
is correct, this year inaugurated warfare with the Indians. 
Those immediately near were friendly, but the Alibamons, 
high up on the river named for them, had to be conquered into 
friendship. Boisbriant went up the river with forty men in five 
canoes against the Alibamons. He succeeded in killing some 
warriors, and brought back to the fort women and children as 
slaves. The French, however, were generous enough to give 
the captives to the Mobilian Indians, who begged for them.^ 

In this same year, 1702, and possibly while "petit St. 
Michel " was learning Chickasaw, occurred, according to Shea, 
the murder of the aged Seminary priest Foucaut, as he was 
descending the Mississippi to Mobile from his station on the 
Arkansas. • His Coroa guides saw his valuables, and killed him 
and his two companions as they slept on the river bank. 
Davion found and buried their bodies. Penicaut puts it three 
years later, and has it that Foucaut' was descending from 
Canada to visit Davion at the Yazoos.^ The French may not 

1 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 427. ^ 4 /jj-j.^ p_ 536. 3 5 yjj^;.^ p. 432. 
* 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 458 ; Shea's Catholic Church in the Colotiies, 
p. 545. 



50 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

have been well settled enough in 1702 to avenge his death, and 
we hear nothing of any attempt to do so. But a similar assas- 
sination at the beginning of the next year, which Shea does 
not mention, although Penicaut does, was promptly punished. 
It was necessary, in order to keep open the river route. 

St. Cosme, a missionary from Canada, was descending the 
river with three companions to visit St. Denis, then in com- 
mand of the fort near the mouth. He reached the Natchez 
safely, but unfortunately spent the night ashore lower down, 
where had been a village of the Bayogoulas. These Indians 
were then at war with the Chetimachas, a tribe dwelling on 
what is now called Bayou la Fourche. These Chetimachas, 
happening to come, were so enraged at missing their foe that 
they massacred the priest and all his comjDany, except a little 
slave. 

St. Denis reported the crime, and Bienville authorized an 
expedition to punish it. This, composed of ten French and 
two hundred savages, Oumas, Ouachas, and Bayogoulas alike, 
St. Denis successfully led up their river. He killed fifteen 
Chetimachas and wounded and captured more, and among the 
prisoners was one of the murderers of St. Cosme. When they 
arrived at Mobile, Bienville had the murderer attached to a 
wooden horse and his head broken (casser la teste), after which 
his scalp was taken, and his body thrown into the river. Not 
content with this, Bienville offered ten escus per scalp or 
prisoner of Chetimacha or Alibamon race brought to him.^ 
To this war and its results, we probably owe the Chetimacha 
slaves which abound in the church records a year or so later. 

The main reliance of the settlement for soldiers was at first 
the Canadian wood rangers, who were so hateful to the clergy. 
And yet Iberville had no great love for the Canadian coureurs 
de hois. Their peltries were bought at Mobile and shipped 
from there, but no one realized better than he the inconstancy 
of such men. 2 They spoke French, but they were half savages, 
and had almost as lief trade with the English as with their 
countrymen. Lawless and irreligious, they counteracted the 
efforts of the missionaries among the Indians, and often by 
intrigue and crime injured the French name. His plan, how- 

^ Penicaut in 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 433, 460, etc. 
^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 586. 



BIENVILLE. 51 

ever, was to anchor even them by bringing over French wives 
to take the place of Indian mistresses. 

There was a "Polastron company" of soldiers at the Mis- 
sissippi fort in 1702, and Iberville was early solicitous to raise 
in France at least two companies of regulars for Mobile to 
take the place of the adventurous Canadians. We learn that 
in 1703 Volezard and Chasteaugue were each recruiting a com- 
pany in France under royal sanction for this purpose. These 
companies in the baptismal registers are named for their cap- 
tains. Blondel was to be enseigne of the latter. ^ In August, 
Chasteaugue actually arrived in the Loire, with seventeen 
passengers, sixty thousand livres, and goods and provisions. 
This was the first of those relief ships which Iberville's influ- 
ence sent, and right welcome she was. Iberville did not come 
himself until next year. 

The supplies ran low after a while, however, and in 1704, 
the flour gave out. Bienville sent his boat (traversier) under 
Becancourt to Havana for more, and permitted fifty of his 
men to hunt for a living in the territory of friendly Indians, 
while he sought to obtain provisions for the rest by purchase. 
When he sent five of his men with some Indians to buy provi- 
sions from the Alibamons, they were all ambushed and killed 
except one, a Canadian, who, although wounded, swam the 
river, and succeeded in bringing the news to the fort. This 
attack, of course, must be punished. 

Bienville at once organized an expedition to seek revenge. 
Mobilians, Tohomes, and Choctaws came to a grand camj^fire 
at the fort. The French feasted them there by the river, and 
they devoted several days to medicine, to the black drink from 
the youpon leaves, which Indians always took before war. 
They then started in pirogues, Boisbriant and St. Denis shar- 
ing the command with Bienville. But the new allies were 
treacherous. The Mobilians delayed, even notified their old 
enemies, the Alibamons, and finally deserted in a body with 
the Choctaws. 2 Bienville then played the ruse of returning, 
and quietly setting out again with white men only. He found 
the Alibamon village up the river and destroyed it. Although 
all but four of the hostile warriors escaped unhurt, the blow 

1 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 586, 616, 620, 624. 
^ King's Bienville, p. 132. 



52 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

served its purpose, and afterwards Bienville paid for other 
scalps. 

Such was the opening of Bienville's troubled government. 
We have seen him in a naval battle on the waters of Hudson's 
Bay, then sounding Mobile channel and exploring the Missis- 
sippi, and later as commandant at the fort near the Mississippi 
mouth, and succeeding Sauvole at Biloxi. He was always 
active and clear-sighted, and this younger Lemoyne looks out 
of the portrait in Margry with a kinder face than the intrepid 
Iberville. And yet the brothers were much alike, and during 
his long life in Louisiana we do not find Bienville lacking in 
any quality necessary to a pioneer governor. He was patient 
even amid faction, and, if foiled in one plan, immediately pre- 
pared another. Successful always he could not be, but the 
best tribute to him is to compare Louisiana as he found it and 
as he left it, and consider not less the inadequate help given 
him in France than the love he inspired in his followers and 
the respect and fear he created in the savages who knew him. 

He was a Canadian, early on the seas, and like many other 
Canadians, devoted to the Jesuits and expert in handling sav- 
ages. He cajoled the Indians with presents, but punished with 
barbarity equal to their own when occasion required. One of 
his most politic acts was at this time, receiving and settling 
on Mobile River a band of fugitive Apalaches, who were driven 
from their Florida home by the neighboring English colonists, 
and he was to have occasion later so to colonize other Indians. 

Iberville was to have come by the Pelican, but the vessel 
was delayed iintil midsummer, 1704, and then came without 
him, for he was sick.^ But this second and famous relief 
ship brought out what he had provided. Livestock, food, and 
merchandise there were, beside a cure, missionaries, artisans, 
seventy-five soldiers, and, best of all, twenty-three virtuous 
maidens under charge of two gray nuns. The girls were all 
well married within a month, except one unusually "coy and 
hard to please," who would take no man in the colony. It is 
said that later all of them rebelled at corn, and perhaps corn 
bread, and that for a while the Petticoat Insurrection taxed 
Bienville's patience and ingenuity. 

In July of the preceding year, St. Vallier, Bishop of Quebec, 
^ King's Bienville, p. 137. 



BIENVILLE. ' 53 

had recognized Louisiana as a settled colony and made Fort 
Louis a separate parish in his vast diocese, and now the Pelican 
brought over the first cure, La Vente. Before that there had 
been no regular pastor, although Douge and Davion were there. 

Davion's history is interesting. The bishop, through the 
Seminary at Quebec, had established St. Cosme at the Ta- 
marois, near modern St. Louis, Montigny among the Natchez, 
and Davion among the Tunicas on the lower Mississippi. 
Davion kept his sacred relics in the trunk of a tree, and the 
chapel which he built long remained there at the foot of a cross 
on a rock. He was influential among the Indians, and is said 
to have once fearlessly destroyed the idols of the Yasous, when 
his life was saved only by the exertions of the grand chief. In 
1700, the Jesuit Gravier found Davion dangerously ill at his 
post, and St. Cosme came to nurse him. Davion we know 
visited Biloxi, and by 1704 was ministering regularly at Mobile. 
He lived amicably with the Jesuit Douge in an unfinished 
house on the river, built with Douge 's means, and when La 
Vente arrived, a church was building also. 

Davion was a typical missionary, 'and Was much beloved at 
Fort Louis. We can imagine him, like Father Felician in 
"Evangeline," going on his sacred errands, reverently welcomed 
everywhere. It was fit that he should induct the first regular 
pastor, but better still, as it proved, would it have been for 
him to have occupied that position himself. 

La Vente was duly put in office in September, 1704, with 
ceremonies set out in the interesting entry on the first page of 
the venerable baptismal register still preserved at Mobile. ^ It 
is attested by Davion, Bienville, and De la Salle, and reads 
as follows : — 

I, the undersigned priest and missionary apostolic, declare 
to all whom it may concern, that, the 28th of September in the 
year of Salvation 1704, in virtue of letters of provision and col- 
lation granted and sealed July 20 of last year, by which Mon- 
seigneur, the most illustrious and reverend bishop of Quebec, 
erects a parochial church in the place called Fort Louis of 
Louisiane, and of which he gives the cure and care to M. Henri 
RouUeaux De la Vente, missionary apostolic of the diocese of 
1 For original French text, see Appendix. 



64 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Bayeux, I have placed the said priest in actual and corporal 
possession of the said parochial church and of all the rights 
belonging to it, after having observed the usual and requisite 
ceremonies, to wit, by entrance into the church, sprinkling of 
holy water, kissing the high altar, touching the mass book, 
visiting the most sacred sacrament of the altar, and ringing 
the bells, which possession I certify that no one has opposed. 

Given in the church of Fort Louis the day of month and 
year above, in the presence of Jean Baptiste de Bienville, lieu- 
tenant of the king and commandant at the said fort, Pierre du Q. 
de Boisbriant, major, Nicolas de la Salle, clerk and perform- 
ing function of commissary of the marine. 

(Signed) Davion, Bienville, Boisbriant, De la Salle. 

Everything now again looked bright, and the census of this 
year was promising. There were one hundred and eighty men 
capable of bearing arms, two French families with three little 
girls and seven boys, and six young Indian slaves, — for slav- 
ery had also taken root, copied from the Indians themselves. 
Pickett says the first Creole, that is native French, was born 
this year, the son of Claude Jousset, a trader. This may be, 
but the first in the baptismal register is Jean Franc^ois, bap- 
tized by Huve on the day of his birth, October 4, 1704. His 
father was Jean de Can, if we rightly read the entry, who was 
a locksmith of the settlement, and his mother was Magdelaine 
Robert, — for a wife is always, as here, called by her maiden 
name. Later in the same month was born a son of Francois 
Le May, but he died and was buried on the day of his birth. 
The next recorded Creole is Jacque, in August of next year, 
son of Jean Roy, master cannoneer (maitre canonier), and 
Renee Guilbert his wife. The sponsors (^parain and niaraine) 
were Le Conte, master carpenter, and Gabrielle Savary, wife 
of Saucie. Thence on such births, although not numerous, are 
not uncommon. 

The allotments of land had borne fruit. There were eighty 
one-story thatched houses, and in this 1704 census are fourteen 
cows, four bulls, six calves, and, while no horses appear, nine 
oxen performed some of their duties. There were also one 
hundred hogs, three kids, and four hundred chickens.^ One 
^ Pickett's Alabama, pp. 195-199. 




INDUCTION OF LA VENTE 



BIENVILLE. 55 

can somewhat understand that the merchandise sent out was to 
be sold for royal account, but it seems odd to read that five of 
the oxen and one bull belonged to the king. The baptismal 
register credits him with a slave, too. Was he in the stock 
business, or was some of the land that was cultivated near the 
fort his private domain? Or perhaps this is the first instance 
on our soil of advances, — Louis XIV. being the merchant ! 

But the Pelican had touched at St. Domingo and brought 
also yellow fever. What a visitation that for the little colony ! 
Half the crew of the Pelican, thirty of the newly arrived sol- 
diers. Father Douge, Le Vasseur, and, worst loss of all, Henri 
de Tonty, died in that September of 1704. The site of the 
cemetery has been lost, but we may imagine it in the woods 
behind the little town. There in an unknown grave near the 
Mobile River they laid the remains of Tonty, one of America's 
great men, with sobbing pines to keep his vigil. The first 
epidemic, — perhaps in proportion the most fatal. 

An Indian war between Choctaws and Chickasaws now 
began, but, fortunately, the enfeebled French were only anxious 
spectators. Boisbriant and twenty Canadians were sent to 
take through the Choctaw nation seventy odd Chickasaws who 
happened to be at the fort. He shielded them as best he could, 
but in one town, by a stratagem, the male Chickasaws were 
murdered and the females enslaved. Boisbriant was himself 
wounded accidentally, but was brought back to the fort by an 
escort of three hundred Choctaws, "in mournful procession." 
He recovered, however, and lived to do much service, for he 
was a dashing cavalier. Not much later, a Lady Superior fell 
in love with him, and became angry with Bienville because he 
broke up their intended marriage. 

There came now a concentration of the colonists. The fort 
near the Mississippi mouth, which St. Denis had commanded 
since Bienville was promoted on Sauvole's death, was finally 
abandoned. Lack of supplies and the non-healthfulness of the 
spot may have caused this, and, at all events, the troops were 
withdrawn to Fort Louis, St. Denis, however, soon tired of 
post life and withdrew to Biloxi, where he settled, — to stay 
until other adventures, which we shall recount, called him to 
new fields and pastures green. 

Colonial life now fully centred at Fort Louis. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
AFTER Iberville's death. 

Fort Louis had now been founded, influence obtained 
among the Indians, the Mississippi valley guarded and in part 
explored, and the future of Louisiana seemed assured, desjjite 
temporary disasters like famine and fever. Wise perseverance 
was all that was necessary. 

And yet much depended upon the one man who was as influ- 
ential at Versailles as on the Mobile. Afl^airs were always in 
better condition when Iberville was by young Bienville's side. 

It was at this time that he came upon the Loire with the 
ever needed supplies and oversaw for a while the affairs of his 
colony. But it was as when one sets his house in order. His 
health had been bad for some years, for the southern climate 
had enfeebled his Canadian constitution. After his departure, 
Bienville and all Louisiana received a rude shock in his death 
at Havana, in 1706, of yellow fever. 

With him died not so much his plans as the power to carry 
them out. Bienville succeeded, but he stayed in America, and 
did not, like Iberville, visit Pontchartrain at Versailles and 
give and take the enthusiasm that carried all before it. Bien- 
ville had his brother's name and his own energy behind him. 
The last was to be neutralized by dissension in the colony, the 
other by time; but the greatest hindrance was the long war 
of the Spanish Succession, when the generals of Louis unsuc- 
cessfully contended with Eugene. and Marlborough in command 
of allied Europe. Prance suffered many defeats, and her trea- 
sury was too exhausted to take care of her colony. 

On the removal of the man in whom all had confidence, the 
colonists, too, became restless and factious, while the court 
itself was indifferent if not suspicious. The great policy of 
Iberville for wholesale rearrangement of Indians dropjjed out 
of view, and what was actually accomplished was to maintain 



AFTER IBERVILLE'S DEATH. 51 

Mobile as a point of observation and influence, the port for a 
large but ill-organized trade among the Gulf and Mississippi 
River savages. A few interior trading-posts there were, but 
for the present no other colonies, and the agricultural resources 
of the country were almost entirely neglected. 

The plan of royal colonial government provided that a com- 
missary of marine, or commlssa ire ot'donnateur, as he was some- 
times called, had control of public property, and with the gov- 
ernor attested public acts, such as grants. In 1704, Nicolas 
de la Salle, whom we met at Massacre Island, is called secre- 
tary (ecrivaiii), performing the function of commissary of 
marine. He was certainly active, but got on ill with Bien- 
ville. From 1706, he constantly complains to the ministry at 
home of the governor and those he deemed a clique of Cana- 
dians. He said the governor was undignified, withheld sala- 
ries, speculated in royal property, appropriated public funds, 
and, in fact, was a grand rascal generally. 

The cure La Vente joined this opposition, and it is possible 
to understand his feeling without altogether sharing it. He 
justly disapproved the profligacy of the men and the sale of 
liquor to the savages.^ But violent opposition was not the way 
to win them back or advance his cause. Bienville in his turn 
accused the cure of keeping shop like a Jew, and of stirring up 
the commissary against him. 

It is impossible to dovibt that part of the trouble arose from 
Bienville's partiality for Jesuits. His father had been in their 
employ, and the boy had been brought up with love for them. 
He thought they made more sacrifices than the other clergy, 
and, in 1706, had a mind to put in La Vente's place Gravier, 
the Jesuit who had been driven away wounded from the Illinois 
flock. 2 Gravier went to Paris to have the Illinois arrowhead 
extracted from his arm, and on the way took occasion, in a 
letter to France, by accident, as it were, to praise the location 
of the colony, its management, and its governor.^ 

Bienville was, perhaps, on more friendly terms with his 
Spanish neighbors at Pensacola than with his commissary and 
cure. But he frequently had to lend them provisions, some- 

^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 551. 

2 Ibid., p. 552. 

* King's Bienville, p. 156. 



68 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

times when his own colony had little enough to spare. Peni- 
caut tells us that on January 7, 1706, Seiior Guzman, governor 
of Pensacola, came to spend four days at Mobile, ^ and we 
know that he was there also in 1709, for he attests the register 
of a baptism then in a bold hand as "Dom Joseph de Guz- 
man." On one of these occasions, if in fact they are not the 
same (for Penicaut's dates are not always accurate), our chroni- 
cler tells us that the Spaniard was received with salutes and 
entertained in great state. He was godfather at a christening, 
and at another time distributed Spanish money as largess with 
no sparing hand. In his honor prisoners were released, and 
at his departure powder was again lavishly used. 

Bienville complains that his salary of twelve hundred livres 
had to pay for such entertainments. There was always at 
least a diplomatic quarrel, however, as to the boundaries of 
the two colonies, even when Spain finally acknowledged the 
de facto existence of the French at Mobile. The Spaniards 
claimed to the east bank of the Mobile River, the French to 
the Perdido, and this last prevailed. But probably to the 
dispute we owe the naming of one branch of the Mobile (our 
Tensaw), even on French maps, as Spanish River. 

In 1706 there was again great dearth of provisions at Mo- 
bile, and Penicaut tells us they lived by hunting, until in Feb- 
ruary, 1707, the Eagle arrived under command of Bienville's 
uncle, M. de Noyant, with supplies and dispatches. The vice 
of the whole system was in not making the colony agricultural, 
at least in part. On or near rich lands, the colonists yet had 
periodic famines. The government retained Iberville's plan 
of making the settlement commercial, but gave up the Indian 
diplomacy which would have made it pay, and did not encour- 
age agricultural pursuits which would at least make the colony 
self-sustaining. There were no regular grants of land, except 
possibly the little town-lots, and of the eight oxen the king 
owned half. No wonder the Canadians preferred the woods. 
The annalist notes that there were too few horses for successful 
farming. 

Indeed, the census of next year shows none of these essen- 
tial animals. As given by D'Artaguette, there were one hun- 
dred and twenty men in garrison, including the priests, and 
^ 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 98. 



AFTER IBERVILLE'S DEATH. 59 

one hundred and fifty-seven colonists, besides sixty unattached 
Canadians. The colonists consisted of twenty-four men, 
twenty-eight women, twenty-five children, and eighty Indian 
slaves. Of domestic animals there were fifty cows, four bulls, 
fourteen hundred hogs, and two thousand chickens. Pickett 
allows fewer soldiers and specifies eight oxen. There were two 
priests besides the cure.^ 

In this year, 1708, came an Indian war, which all but had 
disastrous consequences. The Alibamons during these early 
years, as we have seen, were frequently in arms against the 
French, despite Milfort's legend that the French protected 
them, and reconciled them with the Creeks after centuries of 
war and wandering. The Cheraquis, Abecas, and Cadapouces 
(Catawbas) from the northeast formed an alliance with the 
Alibamons and descended the river four thousand warriors 
strong. But two Mobilians who had married among them gave 
warning, and the French were on their guard. Their courage 
failed the invaders for some reason, too, and the army, which 
could easily have driven the French into the sea, contented them- 
selves with burning cahanes of the Mobilian Indians six leagues 
above Fort Louis, and then retired without attacking the fort.^ 

This was a formidable alliance, and included nations away 
east on the borders of the English colonies, Virginia and Caro- 
lina. The Alibamons were the tribe of the Muscogee confed- 
eracy furthest down the river, and thus most in contact with 
Fort Louis, while the Abecas were the Creeks furthest up the 
Coosa River, showing that the whole confederacy was aroused, 
possibly by English influence.^ The Catawbas, also, are well 
known. They inhabited the Alleghanies on what is now the 
line between North and South Carolina, and were at this time 
a powerful people. They were in constant hostilities with the 
Iroquois, the Shenandoah Valley being the seat of the counter 
raids ; but they and the Cherokees west of them were uniformly 
allies of the English. There was early a trading-path from 
Petersburg to the Catawbas and Cherokees, and we know 
that the Tennessee River was a regular route of English traders 
to the nations beyond. 

^ King's Bienville, p. 176 ; Pickett's Alabama, p. 202. 
2 Penicaiit, 5 Margry, Decouverles, pp. 477, 478. 
^ Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, p. 124. 



Penicaiit, 5 Margry, Decouverles, pp. • 
Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, p 



gQ COLONIAL MOBILE. 

This ^reat army had melted away as those of the savages 
always did after a short while, but the French did not let the 
matter drop. Penicaut tells ns that Chateaugue, n. an expe- 
dition to the neighborhood of Pensacola, killed a niunber ot 
Alibamons, and captnred nine warriors and brought them to 
the fort There their heads were broken {Von fit casser la teste), 
a mode of execution employed by the French no less than by 

the savages. 1 . -r -,• nn ■ -n- -ii^ 

Diplomat and master as he was m Indian affairs, Lienville 
was to suffer in France after Iberville's death.. The accusations 
of La Salle bore fruit at court, and on February 10, 1708, the 
Renommee arrived at Massacre Island with royal orders tor a 
chano-e in the administration. The new governor, De Muy, 
had died at Havana on the way out, however, and so BienviUe 
was not, in fact, superseded. Diron D'Artaguette came as 
the new commissary in La Salle's place, with instructions to 
make full investigation and report, as well as change the 
name of the place to something more stable than "Mobile. 
For on the map of Delisle, in 1707, the old native name for 
the waters had even been adopted officially.^ D'Artaguette, 
in jest or earnest, actually suggested a change to Immobile, 
but Pontchartrain to the contrary notwithstanding. Mobile it 
has ever remained. D'Artaguette's (or Bienville's) change of 
name of Massacre to Dauphine Island, however, was more 
permanent,^ and, in order to secure better communication with 
that port, D'Artaguette built, in 1709, a boat of sixty tons to 
carry merchandise,^ perhaps due in part to the arrival there of 
a vessel from Havana, which, the first Spanish boat ever on 
that mission, came to bring provisions, brandy, and tobacco for 

trade. , „ . » 

This year was also marked by a change of base of some 
Choctaws. We are told that Choctaw refugees came to the 
fort and Bienville settled them on Mobile Bay. They may 
have fled from the Spaniards, as Penicaut says, for the Choc- 
taws claimed territory as far east as the Escambia River, and 

1 5 Margry, Dkouverte.% pp. 478, 479 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, 
pp. 87, 225. 

2 Scaife's America, p. 163. , ^ „ . rrrr 
s King's Bienville, p. 184 ; 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 77. 
4 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 481 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 169. 



AFTER IBERVILLE'S DEATH. 61 

Bienville never lost an opportunity of ingratiating himself with 
the savages. This immigration may have had s(Jnie connection 
with an expedition led by Bienville to aid Pensacola against an 
attack by Alibamons and English.^ An interesting feature of 
this migration is that he put them below his fort, and on the 
site of the present Mobile. It may be conjectured, however, 
that it was near our Frascati, for it was on the bay, and the 
marshy cape near there between river and bay has from French 
times borne the name of Choctaw Point. 

The irregularity of supplies after Iberville's death had ham- 
pered attempts at a colonial forward movement, and yet some- 
thing had been done. The Alibamons were at least kept at bay, 
the many Choctaws were friendly, and the nations immediately 
near the fort devoted to the French. The abortive expedition 
from the east showed that the French name was already known 
and feared as far as the mountains of Carolina. The Missis- 
sippi, too, was secure for French traders, and knowledge of 
the valley was growing. Slaves at the fort were from tribes 
on and even beyond the great river, and thus indicate distant 
expeditions; and in 1708 there was even talk among the officers 
of exploring that great tributary which we call the Missouri. 
The trade in skins and furs was already a growing one. Prob- 
ably every ship that came to Dauphine Island took away 
peltries, and that port itself was of value. It was soon to be 
important enough to need both church and fort of its own. 
Louisiana was not a failure. 
^ Gatscliet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 76 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 169. 



CHAPTER IX. 

LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 

Unknown to almost all but their immediate custodians, 
there lie, in the residence of the Catholic tiishop of Mobile, 
some old books covered with cloth and marked, "Baptisma." 
Opening the first, 1704 to 1778, one sees that it is made of a 
number of thin volumes, like ledger indices, bound together. 
The entries are in French and brief, giving little more than 
baptisms, and are in different handwritings. Some of the 
hands are very indifferent, too, the spelling archaic and often 
incorrect, the paper poor and blotted. It is just such a book 
as one would think fit for the fire. 

Looked at with the eye of an historian, however, what a 
treasure do we find ! Here are the church records of the first 
permanent settlement of the Gulf coast, the French Louisiana, 
with signatures of many of its leaders, and side lights on their 
lives. 

Here, for instance, is the signature of Pere Davion, the 
gentle but heroic missionary to the Tunicas, who had joined 
Bienville at Biloxi. As missionaire apostolique he officiated 
at the settlement on Mobile River, as we have seen, until 1704. 

Davion baptized after that, too, but as before he only signs, 
never writing the entiy in full. His signature is in back hand, 
not unlike that of Treasurer Sj)inner of our own times. La 
Vente has an illegible monogram or series of flourishes about 
the initial "R" of his name. He alternates with Alexandre 
Huve as cure in the entries until 1710, when La Vente 's 
name occurs no more. Nothing indicative of dissension be- 
tween cure and governor is found in this register. Huve (or 
"Huue " as he has it) all but prints his letters, and his entries, 
which are found as late as 1721, are easy to read. His first 
name is always distinct, but he runs together the letters of the 
second. 



LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 63 

Let us investigate the credentials of these clergymen. 

Until 1722 Mobile's ecclesiastical history is connected with 
that of Canada, for Louisiana was part of the diocese of J. B. 
de la Croix, commonly called St. Vallier, the second bishop 
of Quebec. He ruled from 1688 to 1727, and to his strict dis- 
cipline, requiring registers, etc., we no doubt owe our Mobile 
chronicle. 

Gravier succeeded his fellow Jesuit, Allouez, when that mis- 
sionary to the Illinois died in 1689, and St. Vallier at first 
constituted the superiors of that order his vicars-general in 
those parts. But afterwards, despite Jesuit protests, he made 
the superior of the Seminary of Quebec his vicar-general for 
the banks of the Mississippi. 

The first priest, a missionary of this seminary, was, as we 
have seen, Henri RouUeaux de la Vente, of Bayeux, with a 
salary of one thousand livres, and his curate was Alexandre 
Huve, whose salary was six hundred. Gravier was in Mobile 
in 1706 and 1708, but has no entries. F. Le Maire signs an 
entry there on January 30, 1708, as priest and apostolic mis- 
sionary, and his small, close hand occurs at intervals for sev- 
eral years. He had resigned a parish charge in France and 
come out at the instigation of Gervaise, a wealthy young priest, 
who piously wished to found a chapel. Gervaise, indeed, sent 
out three years' provisions and workmen to build a house and 
chapel; but when on the point of sailing himself with Le 
Maire, was restrained of his liberty through the influence of an 
uncle. Doubtless to Gervaise, then, was due the most com- 
modious residence for the priests, built in 1707 on an eminence 
to^ the left of old Fort Louis. Le Maire was friendly to 
Bienville. Huve, who had come over in the Pelican in 1704, 
was not really the Mobile pastor. He was missionary to the 
Apalaches, and chaplain at the Dauphine Island church, where 
he almost lost his life in the English attack. He, too, was 
to go to the Mississippi when that began to be settled, but, 
shocked with the levity of his countrymen, went to preach 
to the Indians. He finally returned to France, almost blind, 
in#l727. 

There is a delightful absence of the restraints of orthogra- 
phy, rules of capitalizing, and everything else in these pages, 
and the side lights on people and place when Mobile was capi- 



64 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

tal of half a continent are full of interest. It is a relief, a 
positive pleasure, to turn from the quarrels of leaders, which 
will much engage our attention, to study the private life of 
the settlement. On this we have a good deal of information 
from this church baptismal register. The marriage and death 
records begin later, but the register preserved often gives rank 
and occupation of parents and sponsors. 

An interesting feature about this old Mobile register is that 
frequently the baptism is lay {pndoyer\ perhaps by the mid- 
wife, in case of danger, although the priest afterwards supplies 
the usual church ceremonies, if time permits. Indians, too, are 
often baptized conditionally {sous conditloii). 

The first thing that attracts notice, after baptism by Davion 
of the little Apalache before La Vente's arrival, is the preva- 
lence of Indian slavery. On the 18th of September, and thus 
before his induction. La Vente baptized a little savage slave of 
ten to twelve years, living at the house of Poudrie. The child 
was extremely ill, and, in fact, died and was buried on the 
same day. Huve the next day baptized one of thirteen or 
fourteen who had been living in the colony for a year and 
belonged to La Vigne. On the first of October were baptized 
two other slave children, belonging the one to M. de Cha- 
teauguay, the other to IVIinet, and towards the end of the month 
another of Chateauguay that died three days later. And thus 
it runs through the whole period. Many colonists, from Bien- 
ville and Manteville and the missionaries down, had Indian 
slaves, of whom not a few were only from one to three years 
old. Of course, to these, removed from their homes, death 
came often. Boutin had one of two months from the Tensas 
in 1708. Why they should have been taken so yoimg it is 
difficult to understand, unless with the view of training them 
in the French interest. The king owned such slaves also, but 
his were adidts. Sometimes they were given names, — witness 
Hypolite in 1707, slave of M. Poudrie. The nationality is not 
often mentioned, except Schittimacha from 1708 and 1709, 
and from the latter year an occasional Alibamon and Tensa. 
In 1710 was baptized Alexandre, a Padoka (Comanche) slJlve 
of the priests of Fort Louis. A Natchitoche and a Chicaeha 
are also mentioned. 

The Indians themselves held slaves. The chief of the Apa- 



LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 65 

laches in 1710 had his Paniouacha slave of three years baptized 
as Marie Susanne. The Apalaches we know were Christians, 
and their names occur often in the records. 

Negroes were not numerous at old Fort Louis, but there 
were some. The first mentioned was a little seven-year-old 
slave of Bienville in 1707, named Jean Baptiste, but where he 
came from is not stated. Bienville had another of three years, 
baptized the same year as Joseph. Chateauguay had a negro 
named FranQois Jacemin, who the same year was declared to 
be the father of Anthoine, born October 26, of Bienville's 
negro woman Marie. This is the first recorded birth of a 
negro on the Gulf coast, although these other children may 
have been born here. Marie stood godmother later for Marie, 
a Sitimacha slave of Bienville. The names are sometimes odd. 
Once a man is Bon Tems, and another is Vin d'Espagne. 

Generally it is not stated whether a slave is Indian or negro, 
but, as the records are often precise as to degree of negro 
blood, it is to be supj)osed the slave is Indian unless otherwise 
given. The importation of negroes in quantity began some 
years later. 

We find named only one mulatto child, Marie Anne, belong- 
ing to Sieur La Tour. As she was eleven in 1710, she was 
not born at Fort Louis, however, ^f mixed Indian and white 
blood (mestifs in the later registers), there were hardly more. 
Sieur Charli, merchant, admits he had a child in 1709 by an 
Indian slave. Huve mentions one, Jean Baptiste, with bated 
breath, July 26, 1710. It was a child of an Indian female of 
Sieur D'Arbanne and the cure adds, "Cujus filius non tantum 
rumore publico habetur, sed et ratione spontanea matris." The 
church did not sanction marriages with Indians, but we shall 
see such unions in later years, and find them even in the church 
records called mariages natvrels. 

Of the occupations recorded, the military would naturally 
rank first in importance. Chateauguay is early spoken of as 
captain, Blondel as ensign in his company, Valentin Bareau as 
surgeon major, and besides Roy we have, in 1707, Jean Louis 
Minuit, and in 1711, Jean Louis, as master cannoneers. Simon 
de la Salle was a cadet of the company Vaulesar in 1708, and 
Bernard Diron of Chateauguay's company the next year. Jean 
Colon was the sergeant of Chateauguay's company, and La 



66 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Violette is later mentioned as also a sergeant. Michel Danti 
is named as a private soldier. 

Rene Doyer and Jean Bon are mattres arquebusiers, gun- 
smiths, — an important trade and semi-military. Doyer could 
not write. Hardly less important was the occupation of master 
pilot, which was Simon Coussot's business, and that of tool 
sharpener {maUre taiUandier^, which was Pierre Alein's and 
also Philippe La Briere's somewhat later. Besides Jean De 
Can, we find in 1709 Jean Le Camp as a locksmith, and in the 
same year Sieur Boie as armorer. 

In a semi-official capacity we see from 1707 M. Poirier 
named as keeper of the royal stores (garde magasin), an im- 
portant position in a colony which depended on the home coun- 
try for almost everything. Jean Claude Poirier was a mer- 
chant in 1716. We find early mentions of Les Soeurs and 
their house, and March 29, 1710, they are named as Soeurs 
Grissot and Linand. Elsewhere we find mention of Marie 
Linant, certainly the same, but it seems improbable that Soeur 
Grissot should be the Marie Grisot, midwife, named in 1708. 
It may be conjectured that they are the two "Sceurs Crises" 
(gray nuns) who chaperoned across the ocean the marriageable 
girls who came on the Pelican. Was it one of these two that 
wanted to marry Boisbriant ? 

Among the purely civil avocations, tradesmen {marchands) 
easily lead in number. The first named as such is Jacques 
L'Allemand in 1707, although Gabriel Savary, wife of J. B. 
Saucie, is mentioned in 1705, and we learn in 1708 that he 
was also merchant. In the same year Gme. Boutin is de- 
scribed by Le Maire as mai^chand a la Mobile. The wives of 
merchants are also named. Boutin's wife, for Instance, was 
Louise Marguerite Housseau. It was at the baptism of their 
child that the Pensacola governor Guzman signed his name 
with so many flourishes. J. B. La Loire is a marchand, and 
his wife's name is also given, — Marie Nadatit. Francois 
Trudaut Is often named, and his wife also, Jeanne Burelle. 

La Tour Is a Sieur, but is marchand, too, in 1710, as also 
Claude Trepanler, whose wife was Genevieve Burelle. Mr. 
Joseph de Lery was another In that same year; his wife, 
HIppolite Mercier. 

There were, however, other trades. The constant complaint 



LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 67 

was of lack of mechanics, but we find at least several carpen- 
ters. Le Conte was a maitre charpentier in 1705, and in 1707 
we find Jean Prot another, a man of family, although he could 
not write. It was not by any means every person who could 
in those days. Next year we find as carpenters Francois 
Trudault, a married man, and Andre Penegault also. This 
last name sourds like Penicaut, our literary friend, but the 
master carpenter was a married man, while the author probably 
was not at that time, from the adventures he described. This 
lady was Marie Prevot. It might be added, too, that if Andre 
had written a book as badly as he did his name, it never could 
have been deciphered. 

Cabinet maker (inaltre menuisier) is the only other trade 
named, and there is but one in that business, Jean Alexandre. 
Of course the fact that it is not given in these defective regis- 
ters is no certain evidence a business did not exist; but this 
fact probably shows at least that the man was not of family 
and not popular. 

Many residents (habitants) are mentioned, but they woidd 
be mere names to us. The Le Sueurs, however, may be spoken 
of. Mile. Marie Le Sueur and her mother Le Messier, the 
widow Le Svieur, are often sponsors. Marie could not write. 
The widow had also a son, Jean Paul, whom we shall know. 
All of course owned slaves, — who did not, indeed, that had 
the means ? 

Signatures of well-known men are there as witnesses to bap- 
tisms, for father signs, and godfather and godmother, as well 
as the priest. The induction of La Vente in 1704 is attested 
by the clear hand and flourish of Bienville, lieutenant of the 
king, the cramped signature of Major Boisbriant, and "De la 
Sail." Poor Nicolas de la Salle! He was removed from 
office in 1708, and in March of that year an infant of his was 
baptized, and another on August 24, 1709; but the record 
notes the burial of the latter in the parish cemetery six days 
later. On May 18 is the striking signature of Philippe Blon- 
del, later commandant at Natchitoches. He stood godfather 
for the child of a cannoneer. The free hand and bold flour- 
ish of Chateaugue, — spelled by the priests Chateauguay, like 
the domain in Canada, — occurs several times. 

Naval stores are not named, but existing tar kilns, over- 



68 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

grown with large trees, testify to this industry near there dur- 
ing French times. Whether the sawmill and tannery planned 
by Iberville were established, we do not know, but Sawmill 
Creek not many miles away had that name at least long before 
the American period. Hunters are not named, for probably 
all hunted, and of the French names of places given, at least 
one indicating a hunt has survived. Just behind Twenty-one 
Mile Bluff is a corner or low ground still bearing the name 
of "Fondlou," — Creole for Fond de I'Ours, Bear Ground. 
Somewhat lower, Bayou Conner is a corruption of Bayou 
Canon, named, it is said, from cannon thrown overboard in 
some expedition, on account of low water or otherwise, while 
across the river Bayou Registe commemorates some forgotten 
Frenchman. 

Such were some of the people and their occupations at the 
" vieux fort " on Mobile River. Where pass steamboats loaded 
the one way with provisions and for the return trip with hun- 
dreds of cotton bales from the upper rivers, then sailed Iber- 
ville and his compeers, pioneers and gentlemen of France. 
From those now neglected shores looked out men and women 
like ourselves, founding indeed an empire for Louis XIV., but 
often amid hunger and danger, sometimes yearning for beau- 
tiful France and straining the eye to catch the first glimpse of 
the boats from Dauphine Island, coming from the Loire, or 
other vessel expected from the old home. There, on the land 
where now grow pines, and where the silence is unbroken except 
by the distant locomotive or passing steamer, was the town 
clustering about Fort Louis, in streets and lots, where civil 
life began with its joys and sorrows, lights and shadows, private 
loves and public enmities, almost two hundred years ago, never 
to cease forever, despite change of site, of flag, and of race. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 

Penicaut tells us that early in the year 1709 a rise of the 
river occurred, which overflowed both town and fort, and left 
uninjured only high elevations. This was a serious and unex- 
pected event, and of course might happen again. Li our own 
day high water has flowed all around Twenty-seven Mile Bluff, 
It had the calamitous result in Bienville's time of destroying 
the crops of the Indians, on which, to some extent, the French 
were dependent. 

It was necessary to make a change of base, and to move the 
site of the colony to some place not subject to overflow. 

Bienville therefore selected, doubtless with the assent of 
D'Artaguette, who was friendly to him, the land which he had 
given the fugitive Choctaws, and he determined to build there 
his new Fort Louis. This is the site of the present Mobile. 
The Choctaws he removed to Dog River, and directed Aide- 
Major Pailloux and other officers to mark out a place for the 
new fort and barracks, and land for each family. The city lots 
should be twelve and a half by twenty -five toises, say seventy- 
five by one hundred and fifty feet each, and the priests were 
given a square to the left, facing the "sea," for the church, — 
of course Catholic. Such is the account of Penicaut, who was 
on the spot.i 

The same authority tells us that they worked at the new 
fort for a year, and that in 1710 movables and merchandise 
were brought down in canoes, cannon and munitions by floats. 
The inhabitants were all moved, and the old fort abandoned 
entirely.2 This was followed by migration of their old Indian 
neighbors, too, and the new city was to have surroundings of 
the old site. A new feature, however, was having two batter- 

* 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 481, 482. 
2 Ibid., pp. 484, 485. 



70 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

ies outside the fort, of twelve cannon each. As these com- 
manded the sea, we may imagine that, unless they were just 
outside the fort, as is probable from Dumont's later mention 
of half -moons, one perhaps was at Choctaw Point and the other 
on the higher land to the north of the city afterwards called 
Round Top. 

The new city was founded in a time of scarcity of food, due 
to the flood. In this year, 1710, Bienville disposed his unmar- 
ried colonists among the savages. Lieutenant Blondel, on this 
occasion, went with thirty soldiers to live among the Choctaws, 
and Sieur de Valligny (or Walligny) with his twenty-five 
French, recently arrived on the Reuommee, and eight Apalaches 
departed to Fish River across the bay, — the first mention of 
this stream. This was not a quartering of soldiers on the 
natives, for Penicaut's account shows that the Indians, espe- 
cially the young women, enjoyed it as much as the French. It 
was really a stroke of policy.^ 

We now reach modern ground, and it would be interesting 
and important to ascertain the exact site of Bienville's town 
relative to the existing city. No plan has ever been published, 
and none is known in city or American archives. But the 
author has been able, through courtesy of the French Minister 
of the Marine, in 1895, to secure a photograph of a manuscript 
map by Sieur Cheuillot, discovered for him in the Archives of 
the Marine at Paris, and this is now for the first time printed. 

A description in old Fi'ench script is at the sides of the 
plan. A translation of this document of 1711 is given below. 
The toise is a measure of six feet, but it must be remembered 
this French foot is 12.78933 English inches, and thus longer 
than our own.^ 

"Description of the City and of the Fort Louis. 

" A- Fort Louis, fortified with an exterior length from one point of 
bastion to another of 90 toises, and with this length they have given 
to the faces of the bastion 23^ toises, to flanks 12i, to gorges 5 toises, 
and to the curtains 40 toises. 

" The fort is constructed of cedar stakes 13 ft. high, of which 2\ 

1 King's Bienville, pp. 179, 205 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 485. Cf. 
p. 443, etc. 

2 2 Public Lands (1838), p. 715, For original French text, see Appendix. 



TLAN DE LA VILLEET FORT- LO VIS DE 

hloms des offincr.<; « priiiiipcattx hoMnns eiui otcupentljCslCmpl^ccwcn 

L- X^--. -,«//'»/■ 5.-/.Ay»-^v^yv^.tV/j^r/^A*w^-^^///#.t • '^•''»< 

T^lTCTRIPTTriXr M /r.":.>,.:..:,frf,fa.^t^~.y<,it,*viMtjfiu/fui'/M .f.jl4.>'u„t ?,i ^u //.,■, 

M.flL.:».tMr I lUIV s Ji>,.u,.:>t,y.x^,.>M,//c- ... v,^.)-...r«« 

De La ViZ/p, »•< iJii (oii I.otijj. o ^.tf/t.yt-./.'ni/t. X-, ''''•»"•'""<"•''<'•''''•''""'''*' 



•"'-.'V^ '''-/'''•••«'"'-- _ 

.l*"^ *-^ C Vr/r/.v/V* ^£A*Jlt//t >/r»/J«.t-i '^- . 

Jt.y.-*rt 9^i iPe^'t^u*^ t^i'£.f.'tt4d.'^ <''6L>^''^oto fCt^. 









^ V 






i ! ! 



Si >; ^ ., 






-■-^',:;'> 



,«,^«»^.«u.^^-^"^ - -" 9 •*;.T-::.|_...-. :.«..... i - ': " . »-,:...t.;:.; , \ . 



/ Mya-> -A^.^ui/ ^^it*. Ja^' 



. ' > y ■ a -AW-r""*'^-^ — 



a, ,„d^jr>.-^'i .jLA.' ^i.z^^i ^''^ ~ 



Jc» /na-t jrc-'-V tj- 

-'J--'f 






tJ*J4 Ct 






\ r\ r T % T pi'-iH "' 




•LOVISIANE- ETABLIES • PARLE5-FIWsLC0iS'EN- 1)^/1 ' 

Nouiie/le Elatiisiejncnl cotteesmrlcUrcs Alpnnheliaue. e\9 — f ♦t*'^ 

■ir^,.^:),/ lJi\C.^ y0^,.,^„,^i,A.X.^,.^y^r^„Jly. C>VITEDELADESCR1PTI0N' 

y.^o.-M^,../ „./,^„y%..:.^x.^^..<^^;,.X,.l.-.-_..- DcLaVil/cetoltjFoKtLouij. 

/c-2'ui> e ^oltJ> „^' ^aJU , .— 




eO^/jc//^'i £^^^- 



^-i j^ATt e^t^iJi. 



t ^kj^JS-^^J-^^^^tf . SK^tL- 






,)e-3 n^^u^^j aiiil- *^! 



'i 


1 

— !-.-t-- 


1 


r 1 1 



/■'at ct~* ai^e £.yj^i£/t/j^c> ^^arzA «/^y^«ce.>^e, 

f.:j^^/^.»c^ 



■-/ 



"l^^2'^ 



.-^Lj^ottJt^ 




. f^b.tf^i^^t-t:itarfjt/t.-ttue^t^^tmfi* ^t-j^^i^Kry 



It. 



De 



La 



M OBiLE 



THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 71 

are in the ground, and 14 inches square de paisseur, planted joined 
the one to the other. These stakes end on top in points like palisades. 
On the inside along the stakes runs a kind of banquette in good slope, 
two feet high and one and a half wide. 

" There is in the fort only the governor's house, the magasin where 
are the king's effects, and a guard-house. The officers, soldiers, and 
residents have their abode outside the fort, as is indicated, being placed 
in sucli manner that the streets are six toises wide and all parallel. 
The blocks are 50 toises square except those opposite the fort, which 
are 60 toises wide and 50 deep, and those nearest the river, which are 
50 toises wide and 60 deep. 

" The houses are constructed of cedar and pine upon a foundation 
of wooden stakes which project out of the ground one foot and might 
be called piling, because this soil is inundated, as you see marked on 
the plan, in certain localities, in times of rain. Some peojile use to 
support their houses stone which is a kind of turf {tufle), very soft, 
and would be admirable for fine buildings. This stone is found 18 
leagues above the new establishment along the bank of the Mobile 
river. The houses are 18, 20 to 25 feet high or more, some lower, 
constructed of a kind of plaster (mortie) made of earth and lime. 

" Note : — This lime is made of oyster shell found at the mouth of 
the river on little islands which bear that name. 

" They give to all who wish to settle in this place land 12^ toises 
wide, facing a street, by 25 deep. 

" The stone used to support the houses is scarce and not common 
for lack of the means of water transportation, such as flat-boats, which, 
do not exist, nor are there persons who wish to go to the expense [of 
building them]. This would be a great aid, for those whose hous«s 
rest only on wooden stakes are obliged to renew them every three or 
four years, because they decay in the ground." 

The lettering connected with the fort is thus given in the 
margin of the map : — 

" B. House of the governor, C. Warehouse {magasin) of the king, 
D. Poudriere or powder magazine, E. Guard-house {Corp de Garde), 
F. Prison, G. Bastion where they place the flag, H. Bastion in which 
is a beU (cloche), there being no chapelle in the fort." 

At the top of the plan is the heading, "Names of Officers 
and Principal Inhabitants who Occupy the Sites (emplacements) 
of this New Establishment Indicated by Letters of the Alpha- 
bet^" and with that guide the plan is very interesting. 

We read: "I. Church and parish (L''eglise et paroisse)," but 



72 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

there is no "I" on the plan. There are a number of unlet- 
tered lots, and a building, unmarked, to the north of the fort, 
not to mention twenty-eight squares projected, quite in modern 
American style, through the piney woods (Pmierre). We 
know that in 1713 Remonville was to find it expedient to build 
a church for the colony, ^ it may be on the lot of the Seminary 
priests. So that any building in 1711 must have been only 
temporary. It would seem probable that, even if temporary, 
the unmarked building by the fort is the parish church, for it 
is in a central place, convenient to garrison and inhabitants, 
as near the bell as the swampy ground admitted, and separated 
from the residence of the Seminary priests (V) only by that 
of M. de Grandville (z), and from the cemetery (R) only by 
that of M, de Bois Brillant (&). It seems to have been 
Bienville's policy in this arrangement to have the prominent 
officers live around the fort. He himself had a whole square 
(X) next south, — probably that afterwards occujned by the 
Eslavas on Royal, extending from our Theatre to Monroe 
streets, and as far west as St. Emanuel. Near the northeast 
corner of this square is (Q) "a little moat made to carry off 
water," emptying into the river, and itself with a bridge. 

On the two blocks west of the fort we find, beginning at the 
south, (h) M. de Clos, ordonnateur, (q) one of the several 
places marked as occupied by inhabitants and voyageurs, (m) 
Jean Louis, maUre cainonier, and on a corner (e) the cele- 
brated M. de St. Denis. As we shall see, streets have been 
much changed since then, but this paladin must have lived 
near the west side of St. Emanuel, about the middle of the 
block running south from our Church Street. Next north of 
St. Denis, separated by a street, was (c) M. de Valligny, then 
(z) M. de Grandville's second and smaller lot, — for he had a 
larger one, where he more probably lived. 

Next north of Grandville's smaller lot, and, like all others 
about the fort, facing on what seems to be a double row of 
oaks around the esplanade, comes (&) our friend M. de Bois- 
brillant (or Boisbriant), occupying the whole southwest corner 
of the streets as then platted, — now more likely the site of 
Christ Church. Back of him on our Conception was (R) the 
cemetery, and the rest of that block was occupied by (S) sol- 
^ King's Bienville, p. 195. 



THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 73 

diers, — as were the whole of the two cleared westernmost 
squares of the city, where they were perhaps thought of as a 
protection on that side. 

On the corner across the street from Boisbriant was (g) M. 
des Laurier, chirurgie7i major, and at the north end of his 
block, near our southwest St. Emanuel and Conti, are (p) 
people in the pay of the king, and then going north a block of 
(S) soldiers again, and back of them about our Conception and 
Dauphin (L) the hospital, near where it will be found in 
Spanish times. 

The Seminary priests, then, were about Royal and Conti, 
and across what corresponded to Conti we find (y) M. de Cha- 
teaugue, Bienville's brother, and one of the most active and 
famous Mobilians. Next north of him came (1) Sieur Poirrier, 
"Garde magasin du Koy." Near the north end of town, — 
which was about our St. Louis Street, — was (f) M. de St. 
Helesne, Bienville's younger brother, but rather a scapegrace. 
However, he may have been put near the north end of town 
to protect it. Not far off, about the northeast corner of Bien- 
ville Square, was (b) M. Blondel. This completes the list of 
notabilities north of the fort. The others are called employees 
or inhabitants, without names. 

South were fewer people, although eight squares are laid off 
there, as in the other direction. About our Madison, between 
Royal and St. Emanuel was (a) M. de Mandeville, and next 
east of him, facing on Royal, was (T) the "logement des 
prestres." These must have been the Jesuits Bienville favored, 
placed here with Bienville, Grandville, and the whole fort be- 
tween them and the Seminary priests. Across the street north 
was (d) M. de Paillou, the accomplished engineer who laid off 
Mobile, and was to design other cities, too. This plan, how- 
ever, is marked as "Levez & Dessignez par le Sr. Cheuillot," 
— otherwise unknown, but for this valuable document worthy 
of being held in lasting honor. 

No explanation is given for lot (r). The other lots so far as 
marked belong mostly to (p), who as we have seen are royal 
employees of different kinds, or (q) inhabitants and voyageurs. 
There is one curious exception. South of the fort, across west 
from Bienville, next to Dr. des Laurier, in the midst of the 
soldiers at the intersection of our Dauphin and St. Emanuel, 



74 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

and, in particular, over the rear third of the square occupied 
in front by Grandville and the Seminary priests, occur lots 
with the letter (n). On the explanation we have only, "Em- 
placement occupees par plusieurs femmes." 

Other signs are on the chart. The river bank south of the 
fort is noted as (M) "marshy land, which occurs sometimes," 
and (P) is a wooden bridge serving as a wharf (embarquacVere), 
extending obliquely across the marshy land at the northeast 
corner of the fort, say between Government and Church 
streets, to deep water. East of the river "are noted (o) banks 
of sand, while on what is now Pinto's Island two pine-trees are 
represented. 

Among the curious features of this map is the location of 
the fort. It extends much further east than the residences, 
and on all sides is surrounded by marshy land. Even if the 
interior was filled and raised, the surroundings would make the 
place unhealthful. This seems strange, when we reflect that 
the move from the older site was on account of overflows of the 
river. But it is to be remembered that there was a town as 
well as a fort, and that the garrison lived outside in houses, 
only the guard on duty having actual quarters inside. 

Another odd thing is that no names are annexed even to the 
twelve dedicated streets, and such is the case with later maps, 
also. There can be no doubt, however, that this was the time 
when the streets were named. At this period were distin- 
guished the family of Conti, who were of royal blood, being 
descendants of a brother of the great general Conde, who died 
universally lamented in 1686. Says Voltaire, "The first 
Prince de Conti, Armand, was brother of the great Conde. 
He played a part in the war of the Fronde, and died in 1666. 
He left by Anne Martinozzi, niece of Cardinal Mazarin, Louis, 
died in 1685, without issue by his wife Marie Anne, daughter 
of Louis XIV. and the Duchess de la Valliere, and left also 
rran(;'ois Louis, Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, then Prince de 
Conti, who was elected king of Poland in 1697 ; a prince whose 
memory has long been dear to France, resembling as he did 
the great Conde in brightness (esprif) and courage, and always 
animated with the desire to please, a quality lacking sometimes 
in the great Conde. He died in 1709." ^ 

1 Voltaire, Louis XIV., p. 476, Firmin-Didot ed., 1891. 



THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 75 

For this prince, doubtless, patron of La Salle and of Tonty, 
was Conti Street named, important avenue as it then was. 
In 1711, this Conti, it is true, was dead, but he had a son, 
born in 1695, then alive, who outlived Louis XIV. 

Parallel to Conti was Dauphin Street. The son of the king, 
the heir apparent, was called "dauphin," his wife "dauphine." 
The street and the island were probably named in 1711. 
Who were the pair at that time? 

Louis XIV. lived with a number of women at one time or 
other, notably the Duchess de la Valliere, Mme. de Monte- 
span, and Mme. de Maintenon whom he married late in life; 
but his only queen was Marie Therese of Austria, born 1638, 
married 1660, died 1683. Louis and she had but one child, 
the dauphin Louis, born 1661, died April 14, 1711. Of him, 
called Monseigneur, it was said, — " Son of a king, father of 
a king, king himself never." Not knowing exactly when the 
names were given, for they might well have been brought 
with the settlement from up the river, we cannot say the name 
of our shopping street was not for this prince, distinguished 
only for scandal. But remembering that it would take some 
time to settle down, it seems more probable the name is for 
the eldest son of Monseigneur and his wife, Marie Anne Chris- 
tine Victoire of Bavaria. 

This Louis, called Duke of Burgundy, was born in 1682, and 
his wife, the dauphine after April 14, 1711, was Marie Ade- 
laide of Savoy, daughter of the first king of Sardinia. This 
dauphine, according to Voltaire, was well educated, just, peace- 
able, enemy of vainglory, a worthy pupil of Beauvilliers and 
the celebrated Fenelon.^ For them, then, were our street and 
island named. 

The closing years of Louis XIV. were marked by private 
grief as well as public disaster, and 1712 brought home losses 
which humbled even the great king in the dust. Nemesis it 
may be, but one cannot help pitying the man. In that year 
died Louis, the seven-year old child of this dauphin, then Feb- 
ruary 12 the loved dauphine, and six days later, of smallpox, 
the amiable dauphin himself, to the sorrow of France and of 
all Europe. And the loss was even greater than it seemed. 
A man who would have been a good king was gone, and the 
I Voltaire, Louis XIV., p. 473. 



76 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

new daupliin was the two-year-old child who was to be the 
dissolute Louis XV., in whose minority came the regency of 
Philip of Orleans, the friend of John Law. 

Remembering the pitch reached by royalty under Louis 
XIV., it is natural that the principal street, the one frontmg 
the river, should be Royal Street. St. Louis was rim many 
years later through swampy land, but its name shows its French 
origin, and, whether then built up or merely important as the 
north boundary street, it too must date back to Bienville's 
time. But unless St. Francis be another, "only the four streets 
above siven seem to retain now their French names. The 
present streets south of Government are certainly American, 
and St. Emanuel, Conception, (St.) Joachim, and St. Michael 
were almost as certainly renamed by the Spaniards, and their 
French names are not now known. 

Our plan does not show the two-story house Chateaugue 
built on his lot, and we do not see the name of Commissary 
La Salle nor of Cure La Vente. Indeed, these last two never 
exercised authority on the soil of present Mobile. La Salle 
died in 1710, probably up the river, and La Vente in October 
of that year returned to France in a dying condition. ^ 

Le Maire, the new cure, was friendly to Bienville and often 
enjoyed his hospitality, and in D'Artaguette the governor had 
also a friend. D'Artaguette showed Bienville the charges 
against him, and this induced him to write a spirited remon- 
strance to Pontchartrain, which D'Artaguette took with him 
to France in this year, 1711, when he returned home on the 
Renommee to exculpate the governor. 

^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 552. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CROZAT AND CADILLAC. 

When Bienville moved his colony to its final seat, the bril- 
liant reign of Louis XIV. was drawing to its dark close. The 
vaultmg ambition of the French monarch had overleaped itself. 
Although he outlived his great opponent, William of Orange, 
and still annexed provinces on the Meuse and Rhine, Marl- 
borough and Eugene had filled the place of the Dutch-English 
commander, while the French Conde and Turenne were dead. 
An honorable peace was finally patched up at Utrecht, but 
the rest which followed was the sleep of exhaustion. Money 
was gone, men were gone, — all gone, save honor. The king- 
could not carry out his old American dreams. 

On March 17, 1713, the frigate Baron de la Fosse, com- 
manded by De la Jonquin, arrived at Dauphine Island, firing 
salutes. She brought the news of this Peace of Utrecht, but 
news, too, much less acceptable to the colonists. There was to 
be a complete change of system. 

The aid which had come in the Renommee two years before 
had been the private enter j^rise of Remonville, always a friend 
of the colonists, and the government had now improved on 
that experiment, and farmed out the whole colony. Antoine 
Crozat, a rich merchant, -r- Marquis de Chatel he was then, — 
had leased the country for fifteen years from the king, and 
intended through mining and commerce with Mexico to make 
his venture pay. The total population was four hundred, 
including twenty negroes,^ and he was obligated to bring over 
colonists, and also introduce slaves from Africa, He was to 
be represented by a governor and directors, while the king on 
his side was to maintain a sufficient military force. 

Bienville was not satisfactory to the new proprietor. He 
believed in agriculture, not commerce, and had taken D'Arta- 
guette to the Mississippi to urge an establishment there. So 
1 Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 113. 



78 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Crozat sent over a new governor on this frigate in the person 
of De la Mothe Cadillac, who had already served with distinc- 
tion in Canada. With him came his wife, sons, and daughters, 
as well as twenty-five young girls from Brittany. Cadillac 
was interested in Crozat's venture as in some sort a partner. 

The transfer of the government could not have been either 
lengthy or formal, and no doubt occurred in the fort at Mobile. 
The new governor lived outside, however. For, as Chateau- 
gue's house was the best in the town, Cadillac proceeded to take 
possession of it for his large family. Chateaugue complained 
to the government at Paris, but ajjparently without effect. 

History has not dealt kindly with La Mothe Cadillac, and 
yet he had his merits. In August, 1701, he had fovmded 
Detroit from Three Rivers, and for some years was an impor- 
tant character in Canada. Tor his Detroit stockade, named 
Fort Pontchartrain, held for France the passage between tlie 
upper lakes, whose fur trade was controlled from Michilli- 
mackinac by the Jesuits, and the lower lakes, whose trade at 
La Salle's Fort Frontenac and British Fort Oswego was dis- 
puted between the French and English. He had been ham- 
pered there by Pacaud's Compagnie du Canada, which held 
a monopoly of the trade at Detroit and Frontenac, and Detroit 
was destined not to be able to compete with Mackinac in trade. 
This company was practically abolislied after a few years, but 
not before its monopoly had helped Louisiana by driving down 
to the Gulf the coureurs de hois and their peltries.^ 

So that when Cadillac was put in charge of the interests 
of Crozat, he knew something of his business. The northern 
end of the Mississippi, even the Illinois country where the Ohio 
empties, was not in Crozat's charter. It was in a measure in- 
dependent, and in fact always oscillated between Canada and 
Louisiana. Exploration had by this time opened up much of 
the interior, and the designs of Cadillac covered trade with the 
Spaniards, as well as with the Indians of the Mississippi and 
Alabama valleys, and the working of mines wherever found. 

Among his first endeavors from Mobile was to open an over- 
land trade with Mexico. For it he selected Jucherau de St. 
Denis and sent him with ten thousand livres of Crozat's ffoods. 
The adventures of St. Denis as detailed by Penicaut were 
1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 72, 116. 



CROZAT AND CADILLAC. 79 

less important for commerce than geography. He pene- 
trated ahnost alone up the Red River region, where he had 
once explored with Bienville, and made his way to the Spanish 
post of Presidio del Porto. He was sent forward to Mexico 
and well treated, but obtained little satisfaction in the way of 
trade. The same result followed St. Denis's second and larger 
trading expedition through the Natchitoches country, this time 
on his own account. But he at least won a Spanish wife, if he 
did have to stay in jail for some time.^ The same repulse fol- 
lowed the mission of Durigouin by sea to Vera Cruz. Cadillac 
had to give up the idea of Spanish trade, but the French at 
least gained a foothold among the Indian neighbors of Mexico, 

Indian relations were generally happy. On the Mississippi, 
in one of those Indian wars of extermination that devastated so 
much of our country from time to time, the Tensas were, in 
1714, driven away from their homes near Bayou Manchac. 
They were then persuaded to move to Mobile, and were settled 
two leagues north from the fort, where the Chaouanons and 
Taouatchas had been.^ 

On the Mississippi the French were all but supreme. In 
1714, they found an English officer exploring that river, and 
they captured him and brought him to Mobile. Some give his 
name as Hutchey, some Young, and Penicaut calls him M. 
You.^ He was released at Mobile, but was not wise enough 
to leave for the Atlantic coast. The Tohome Indians recap- 
tured him and "broke his head." 

The enterprising English were taking advantage of the Peace 
of Utrecht and penetrating everywhere. Long before this the 
Tennessee River had been the route for Carolina traders to 
the interior tribes, and the English were now even among the 
Natchez. The Catawbas and Cherokees were always friendly 
with the Atlantic colonies, and it was a great security to these 
to have peace, particularly with the latter. For the Cherokees 
dominated all the eastern tribes south of the Iroquois. But 
the relations with the Yamassees and Tuscaroras were not so 
satisfactory, and from 1711 there was war with the English. 

1 Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 133 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, 
pp. 495, 527 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 204. 

- Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 126. 

* 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 509 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 185. 



80 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Colonel Moore finally drove the Tuscaroras northwardly to 
become the sixth nation of the great Iroquois confederacy, and 
by 1713 all was quiet.^ But all was not friendly, and this 
hostility seems to have driven the neighboring Creeks and Ali- 
bamons into the arms of the French. The French were ever 
the better diplomats. 

We are told that in the year 1714 the "emperor" of the In- 
dians near Carolina aiid the principal chief of the Alibamons 
came to Mobile and proposed to Cadillac that he erect a fort 
among them. This commercial and political chance was not to 
be lost, and he sent Captain de la Tour with a hundred men 
and built Fort Toulouse, near where the Coosa and the Talla- 
poosa join. Other accounts make Bienville the builder of this 
first extension of Mobile's influence. The fort, by whomever 
erected, was of logs, and had four bastions, with two iron 
cannon in each. It is said the name was at first Alabama (in 
some more French spelling, no doubt), but that it was by Bien- 
ville changed to Toulouse in honor of the Comte de Toulouse, 
an admiral of France, and at this time director of the colonies. 
The usual name of post and district in the church records, 
however, we shall find to be "Aux Alibamons." The first 
garrison was of thirty soldiers, commanded by Marigny de 
Mandeville ; but the fort, not less judiciously than beautifully 
located, had an importance far beyond the actual number of 
soldiers within its ramparts. 

From both a commercial and military point of view it con- 
trolled the warlike Creeks, and covered the approach around 
the southern flank of the mountains from the Atlantic not only 
to Mobile, but also to the Mississippi. From this time it is 
that Coxe in his contemporary work on "Carolana" dates the 
decline of English influence among the "Allibamons, Chicazas 
and Chattas," although he mentions Fort Louis itself rather 
than its outpost. In fact, a general Indian war with the Eng- 
lish followed, extending even to the Chickasaws, where Bien- 
ville's kinsman St. Helene was killed. Characteristically 
enough, it was as he stooped to light a cigar. ^ 

On the Mississippi the French already had a post among the 
Natchez. It was a warehouse or factory, and may have been 

1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, 20, 133, 168. 

2 1 Martin's Loumana, p. 186. 



CROZAT AND CADILLAC. 81 

due to fear of M. You and the English traders Penlcaut found, 
in 1714, among those Indians. The station at first met with 
misfortune, for the Indians murdered Frenchmen on the river 
and plundered the warehouse. But Bienville went there in 
1716 for redress. He seized the chiefs by stratagem, and 
compelled the execution of the offending warriors. A site for 
a fort was also conceded, and Paillou, who had built Fort 
Louis, now superintended the erection of Fort Rosalie there 
on the Mississippi. Such was the origin of Natchez. 

The French long cherished De Soto's dream of mines in the 
interior, and to this was due much of the misfortune of the 
colony. Lands lay rich about them, but they did not attempt 
agriculture. Commerce with the Spaniards had not succeeded, 
and that with the Indians, on which Iberville had so counted, 
was not sufficient. It was one of Crozat's original plans to 
develop the mineral wealth of the country. 

Le Sueur, years before, had built his short-lived Fort 
D'Huillier on Green River, high among the sources of the 
Mississippi (where Penicaut had wintered with him), and 
thence taken to France his green earth. In 1702, M. D'Eraque 
had been driven from the fort by Mascoutins and Foxes. Now 
Cadillac was to investigate the silver ore which was brought 
him from mines in the Illinois.^ He was deceived, of course, 
for it had been brought ivoxp. Mexico. But he staid in the 
upper country almost a year, and had, on his return in 1715, 
very little to say about his discoveries. 

He said enough about everything else. His reports from 
the beginning were blue. The colonists were irreligious, the 
country unproductive, mines a myth, and commerce with the 
Spaniards not permitted by them. On the other hand, the 
commissary Duclos praised everything, Bienville in particular. 

Relations were always strained between Cadillac and Bien- 
ville, and one half suspects that Bienville put some of his 
friends among the wood rangers up to palming off that ore on 
the governor in order to take him away for a while. 

And yet Bienville, in a letter to his brother, the Baron de 
Longueuil, as early as 1713, had mentioned Cadillac's "grown 
daughter, who had a great deal of merit," and whom he 

1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 99 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 416 ; 
1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 184. 



82 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

thought of marrying, although he disliked her snarling father.^ 
This marriage was never consummated ; but no aiithority has 
been discovered for the old story that she fell in love with 
Bienville, and, when Cadillac offered him the hand of the 
daughter, he declined it.'-^ It would be more likely that the 
jealousy between the two men drove the romantic attachment 
out of Bienville's heart. 

Cadillac's complaints to France finally bore fruit, — but only 
in his own recall. Crozat wrote him that the disorders he 
complained of were due to his own maladministration, and 
selected L'Epinay to succeed him. Meantime Bienville was to 
act as governor ad interim. Cadillac then complained that 
he was treated discourteously at Mobile. We may hope it 
consisted, for one thing, in being forced to give Chateaugue 
back his house. At all events, on March 9, 1717, the Duclos, 
Paon, and Paix, Crozat's vessels, arrived at Dauphine Island, 
bringing the new governor and Hubert, the new commissary. 
Bienville i-eceived the cross of the order of St. Louis and grant 
of Horn Island as his property, but was disappointed at not 
becoming governor himself.^ 

The whole colony had but seven hundred inhabitants, accord- 
ing to Du Pratz, and the change of governor was to make little 
difference. One important change, however, was made in the 
fort which caused it to survive until this century. It was 
reconstructed of brick, traditionally said to have been made in 
the forest not far from Dr. Ketchum's residence on Govern- 
ment Street, and carried to the fort by Indian squaws. A 
stone bearing the date 1717 is said to have lasted until Ameri- 
can times, but this valuable relic has disappeared. The dimen- 
sions show that the new fort was smaller, for the ditches hardly 
reached to where the first stockade had run. 

This show of activity was almost the last, Crozat soon 
found that the new fort and the new governor made little im- 
provement in the returns. The disappointed old man at last, 
in this same year, prayed the regent to accept a surrender of 
the colony, and he consented. 

1 King's Bienville, pp. 190, 200. 

2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 225. 

^ Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 134 ; King's Bienville, p. 228. 



CHAPTER XII. 

EST THE TIME OF LAW's COMPANY. 

On February 9, 1718, the Daviphine, Vigilant, and Neptune 
arrived at Daupliine Island, bringing Boisbriant as royal lieu- 
tenant, commanding Mobile and Daupliine Island, and a com- 
mission for Bienville as governor, aU dated September 20, 
1717. This, says Penicaut, "gave general satisfaction, as no 
one better knew the wants and resources of the colony." ^ 

But there was one who thought he knew them better, — John 
Law, the first great "promoter" of modern times. Scotch 
gambler, outlaw from England, introducer of the game of faro, 
French banker, intimate of the notorious regent, the Duke of 
Orleans, head of the Mississippi bubble, outlaw again, then a 
wanderer on the face of the earth until his death, — the life of 
this brilliant man reads like a romance. Whoever has read 
Gayarre's picture of Law in his glory, with princes kicking 
their shins in his anteroom when the Mississippi project was 
at its height, can never forget it. 

Law was undoubtedly a master of finance, but he raised a 
spirit of specidation which he could not lay. From banking 
he went to "booming" Louisiana. His Western Company of 
August 17, 1717, obtained a charter for twenty-five years, and 
was designed to develop the agriculture of the country. Pro- 
spectuses, however, painted too brightly the fertile soil, balmy 
air, and golden sands. The company tried to develop in a few 
years what needed a century. 

Bienville believed in the scheme, and did all he could to 
further it. He had always favored a settlement on the Mis- 
sissippi, and now determined to make it. Hubert opposed 
him, and was to succeed in forcing a compromise on New Bi- 
loxi for a time. But Bienville believed he was right, and he 

1 Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, pp. 138, 139 ; 2 White's New 
Recopilacion, p. 436, etc., which gives the commissions in full. 



84 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

was yet to succeed. It was in this expansive spirit that in the 
year of his appointment he examined the Mississippi and picked 
out the site of New Orleans, shown on the Comjiany's map 
of this time as only a portage. He sent the brave Blondel as 
commandant to a post now established at Natchitoches, and 
Boisbriant, who had been knighted, as governor to the Illinois 
region, where in 1718-20 he built Fort Chartres, on the Mis- 
sissippi above the Ohio, to become the chief seat of French 
influence in that region. At Mobile itself, however, we read of 
desertions, in 1719, of soldiers who made their way overland to 
Carolina.^ 

The Company was anxious to induce immigrants of every 
class, and to this we owe some maps. One, beautifully drawn 
and dating from the beginning of Law's enterprise, gives a 
clear idea of Mobile Bay, which still, as with Delisle, is not 
named as such. It shows the Old Fort (Vieux Fort) about 
opposite where R. Espagnole leaves the Mobile River, and 
near Isle Dauphine it notes, " jadis Massacre." It is based on 
Delisle, and has the same names that he has and the same gen- 
eral arrangement, but lacks his bay soundings.^ 

An early map gives "Chacteau Bienville " on the bay above 
Dog River. It was no doubt the place mentioned by Peni- 
caut as built in 1719 by the governor on the bank of the sea a 
league from the fort. This would locate the chateau in Gar- 
row's Bend, but its exact site is now unknown. Tradition is 
silent, too, but somewhere on the present Shell Road, Bienville 
had this " fort belle maison avec un jardin." According to 
French's version, he lived there all the ye^v round for his 
health, and had orange-trees in his orchard. Margry's text, 
however, says nothing of oranges, which are thought to date 
from a later regime.^ 

Bienville was to ask for a fief on Pearl River to bear his 
name, and get Horn Island instead in socage tenure.* The 
desire to j^erpetuate his name was not unnatural, but he was 
as unsuccessful as his older brother. For Iberville had asked 

' Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, pp. 138-141 ; 1 Martin's 
Louisiana, p. 207. 

2 Winsor's Basin of the MmLisippi, p. 423. 

^ 5 Margrv, Decouvertes, p. 487 ; 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 106. 

* King's Bienville, p. 228. 



IN THE TIME OF LAW'S COMPANY. 85 

that the country on upper Mobile Bay, from Dog River around 
to below the great bluffs of the eastern shore, be granted to 
him as the Comte de d'Iberville, two leagues deep at all points. 
He said he would undertake to settle it.^ Had this been done, 
how different might have been local history! 

These particular grants were not made, but land was liber- 
ally divided out among concessionaires, who should as a condi- 
tion of the grants settle colonists on them. In March, 1719, 
the warship Comte de Toulouse arrived at Dauphine Island 
with one hundred passengers, and a month later other vessels 
under Serigny with more, as well as soldiers and workmen, 
and also "two hundred and fifty negroes, who were sent to 
Dauphine Island and distributed among the concessions." ^ 
This was the first large importation. 

Serigny brought also news of war with Sjjain. Bienville 
and Chateaugue accordingly got together an army of eight 
hundred French and Indians at Mobile and marched overland, 
while Serigny sailed for Pensacola with four vessels. Invested 
May 14, it soon succumbed, and Chateaugue was left there 
with a garrison of three hundred. The Spaniards in Cuba 
received the news from vessels that carried the garrison as 
agreed, and, seizing these ships, speedily recovered Pensacola. 
They even captured Chateaugue and took him to Havana. 

This was not all. A powerful Spanish armament sailed for 
Mobile. It was twelve days before Dauphine Island, where 
St. Denis commanded, but his forts, two hundred troops and 
Indians, drove them off. A Spanish gunboat did enter the bay 
and land men, who plundered a place called Miragouin ; but on 
their repeating this attack, Mobile Indians were on the watch 
and killed thirty and captured seventeen. These captives 
fared badly. The Indians took them up to Mobile, clubbed 
them to death, and threw their bodies into the bay. As many 
captured deserters were shot at Mobile.^ 

Miragouin we can identify. Maringouin, probably the same, 
we are told by Penicaut in another place, is the name of a 
small biting insect, — which we recognize at once as the mos- 

^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 616. 

^ Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, pp. 145, 146. 
^ Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 148 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, 
pp. 212-215. 



86 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

quito. It was the name that we see on old French maps for 
a place on the bay front of our Monlouis Island. 

Bienville and St. Denis by land and Champmeslin by sea 
now reinvested and captured Pensacola. There they found 
forty deserters, of whom they hung twelve on board, but 
peace came in 1720 not long after, and the old flag of Spain 
at last regained its place, to remain there for generations. 
Chateaugue and his companions were released, the Spaniards 
borrowed provisions as usual, and old ties were renewed as if 
that port had never been a French capture.. 

Ships continued to bring colonists in great numbers to Mobile 
Bay for the different concessions, and the popidation required 
creation of courts beneath the Superior Council in the persons 
of directors or agents with local assistants. No vessels except 
the Company's could come or go. The Company fixed the 
price at which the colonists should buy and sell, and either 
transaction could be only with the Company. On the price at 
Mobile and Dauphine Island, five per cent, was added for goods 
delivered at New Orleans, ten at Natchez, thirteen at the 
Yazoos, twenty at Natchitoches, and fifty at the Illinois and on 
the Missouri. The Company in turn bought colonial produce 
at its warehouses in Mobile, Ship Island, New Orleans, and 
Biloxi.i 

For Biloxi (on the new site) was again inqjortant. At the 
close of 1720, the headquarters of the company were removed 
there, 2 as nearer the Mississippi, whose fertile shores were 
being peopled. Mobile was for a time to continue to be the 
largest city, but ceased to be the capital. 

For a while it kept on as usual under the old inertia. The 
fort was renamed Fort Conde by an order of the Company of 
October, 1720,^ that arrived on the Mutine. Early the next 
year, IVI. De Pauger set out from Biloxi to make a plan of 
Mobile and a survey of Mobile River to the white bluffs thirty 
leagues from Mobile and six from the Chicachas River.* La 

1 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 218. 

2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 257. 

^ La Harpe, Historical Journal, pp. 82-84 (3 French's Historical Collec- 
tion). 

* La Harpe, Historical Journal, pp. 84, 85 (3 French's Historical Collec- 
tion) ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 256. 



7iV^ THE TIME OF LA WS COMPANY. 87 

Harpe goes on to say that they are similar to those of St. Luke 
at Paris, and are two hundred feet high, being a continuation 
of interior mountains. From this it would seem the Tombigbee 
was called for the Chickasaws and the Alabama the Mobile, as 
indeed is shown by some maps, for the reference must be to 
the bluflfs at Claiborne. As late as 1723, when the Spaniards 
were assisted with provisions, it was from Mobile. 

In January, 1721, came three hundred colonists for the 
grant of Mme. Chaumont at Pascagoxda, and then another 
with twenty-five prostitutes from the Salpetriere, a house of 
correction at Paris, sent as wives for the colonists. In March 
arrived one hundred and twenty negroes from Guinea in the 
Africaine, a warship, and also three hundred and thirty-eight 
in the Maire, and one hundred and thirty-eight more in the 
Neride. The mortality on these slave-ships was great, but 
none other had the story of the Neride to tell. Three hundred 
and fifty negroes had sailed in the frigate Charles from Angola. 
This vessel was burned at sea, ,many of the crew and human 
cargo perishing. The escaping seamen finally, almost crazed 
with hunger, killed negroes one after another for food.^ 

On elune 4, the Portefaix arrived with three hundred and 
thirty German colonists, and also the commandant for the now 
provincial Fort Conde at Mobile. It was no other than Man- 
deville, become a chevalier of the military order of St. Louis. 

But other familiar names now leave us. About this time 
Bienville was informed of the death, at Natchitoches, of Blon- 
del, and on October 6 of this year, 1721, our chronicler, Jean 
Penicaut, was himself to leave the colony and sail back to 
France for treatment of his eyes.^ It is with sincere regret 
that one closes the lifelike pages of this first literary Mobilian, 
and we cannot but hope Mr. French is wrong in his supposi- 
tion that Penicaut soon died under operation in France. Two 
years later, although desiring a pension, Penicaut wished to go 
back to Louisiana, despite his eye trouble. He had left wife 
and slaves there, and, as owner of a concession near Natchez, 
describes himself as Sieur.^ Serigny, too, in 1720, returned 
to France, where he became captain of a vessel and afterwards 

1 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 257-259. 

2 Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 161. 

3 5 Margry, De'couvertes, pp. 553, 584, 585, 689, 690. 



88 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

governor of Kochefort. He died in 1734, and was the only 
one of the Lemoynes to found a family. His descendants have 
long been distinguished in French history. ^ 

La Harpe, too, becomes less garrulous now, and soon goes to 
Europe. But it is from him we learn that the Portefaix on this 
June 4, 1721, had brought news of the flight of John Law 
from Paris, and of the collapse of his bank and of the Missis- 
sippi bubble. The universal panic and distress which ensued 
in France were to find their echo in Louisiana. 

The currency was, with the colonists, a serious question after 
Law's failure. The Company went on, lasted ten years longer, 
but the paper money lost credit with the public. To restore 
confidence, the old notes were nominally redeemed and a new 
issue made. So Michel was set to work, in 1722, at Mobile to 
engrave the new obligations. These were called cards, and in 
due time the Mobilian turned them over to the Company, which 
hit upon the ingenious device (since copied by Chancery courts) 
of not redeeming the old claims after a published date. As 
the circulation was extensive, all of course were not presented 
in time, and the plan succeeded for a while. The next year 
Spanish pistoles and dollars were legalized, and thus the silver 
set in circulation that was for over a century to be the general 
medium of exchange. There was about this time struck a cop- 
per coinage also for the colonies. The portion for Louisiana 
was brought by Fouquet to Biloxi. It was current in Mobile.^ 

In this year, 1722, it is said, was the excitement of a military 
execution at the fort. The province was as deficient in food as 
in good money, and at Fort Toidouse up the river, as we shall 
see, most of the garrison mutinied. Commandant Marchand 
was murdered and the mutineers escaped. Villemont, how- 
ever, second in command, j)ursued them, and, with the aid of 
friendly Indians, captured those whom he did not kill. Down 

^ White's New Recopilacion, pp. 655, 656. 

^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, pp. 247, 256 ; 1 Gayarrd, Louisiana, pp. 282, 357 ; 
Pickett's ^ZaJama, p. 267. A thin sol or sou dated 1721 has been dug up on 
Franklin Street, south of Church, by Mr. G. Pulliam, who still possesses it. I 
myself have one identical in all but the mint mark, Pulliam's having H, for 
Rochelle. On the obverse is a crown, and under it two capital L's, facing 
in opposite directions and crossing each other. Around is the legend " Sit 
[Nomen Domini] benedictum." On the reverse is the inscription, " Colonie 
Franqoise, 1721." 



IN THE TIME OF LA TV'S COMPANY. 89 

to Mobile in canoes he sent them under charge of an Indian 
guard commanded by Ensign Paque, and there they were duly 
executed.! Meek says^ one of the eight was even placed in a 
coffin and sawn asunder according to the rules of the Swiss 
company to which he belonged. The death penalty was prob- 
ably enforced in the parade north of the fort, say on Royal 
between our Church and Government streets. 

In years to come, one D'Aubant was to command at that 
Fort Toulouse and take thither the lady, once of Wolfenbiittel, 
who had only the year before this time arrived in Mobile and 
married him. She claimed to have been the wife of Alexis 
Petrovitch,, the son of Peter the Great, but to have pretended 
death on account of his brutality and escaped to America. At 
all events, she met a lover and new husband in D'Aubant, an 
officer in the Mobile garrison. ^ Whether princess or impostor, 
her story reads like a romance. 

In whatever vine-clad cottage they lived, under the pines 
or oaks of Mobile, with the little daughter born to them, they 
must have suffered like every one else in the years just suceed- 
ing Law's failure. And yet, speculative and careless of means 
as it was, Law's Company gave Mobile and all Louisiana a for- 
ward impulse. Slaves had been introduced by the hundred, 
the orange and fig successfully planted, never to die out, and, 
even if our princess is not quite above historic question, and 
many a Manon and much of the refuse of France were landed 
on Dauphine Island, there were not a few valuable citizens, 
too; and from John Law's time the colony developed as it 
never had before. 

1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 266. 

^ Romance of Southwestern History, p. 30 ; compare Bossu as to the Beau- 
drot execution. Travels, p. 325. 

^ Gayarrd claims her for New Orleans (History of Louisiana, p. 270), but 
New Orleans was hardly habitable for a princess in 1721. Pickett relies on 
material found at Paris, and fixes the place as Mobile (History of A labama, 
p. 259, etc.). Unfortunately, neither cites authorities, although it is said 
Gayarrd relied on Voltaire. The probabilities favor Mobile. D'Aubant 
was in that garrison, and it was from here they would naturally leave to go 
to Fort Toulouse, which was an outpost of Mobile. Martin does not say, 
but places D'Aubant at Mobile. He says D'Aubant is called such by Bossu, 
but Maldeck by the king of Prussia. 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 231. See, 
also, Meek's highly-colored account in his Southwest, p. 30. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 

Relations of peace or war with the Choctaws, Alibamons, 
and other large Indian nations will occupy much of our atten- 
tion, indeed make up the principal part of our story, but as 
interesting, if less important, is the history of those nearer, 
smaller tribes who came to Fort Louis for protection, and from 
place to place followed the fortunes of the French. Among 
these the Mobilians, Apalaches, and Tensaws attained consid- 
erable civilization. 

The most distant of these Mobile races were the Tohomes or 
Thomez, — "Little Chiefs." Their location has not been per- 
petuated by any surviving name of bluff or stream, and the 
French maps are so general as not to give much assistance. 
These early maps have a waving line for coasts and river bends, 
and creeks are liberally distributed where they will look best, 
but accurate topographical details are not given. The Thomez 
were eight leagues above the fort,^ and we may fairly place this 
tribe about Mcintosh's Bluff on the Tombigbee. We know 
their counti-y was fertile and had good roads. Almost the first 
mention of them is in 1701, when Bienville sent from Biloxi 
to them to buy corn meal.^ 

The Tohomes were closely associated with the Mobilians, 
who lived two leagues below them. In his enumeration of 
Indians in 1702, Iberville classes them together. After the 
removal of Fort Louis to the present site of Mobile we hear no 
more of them, and it may be conjectured that they became 
absorbed into the Mobilians. They were not numerous. 
Pickett allows them forty huts; Iberville for his time but eight 
or ten. 3 

Next south came the Naniabes, or Naniabas, "Fish-eaters,'' 

' 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 514. 

a Ibid., p. 504. 

^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 128 ; 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 514. 



NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 91 

who lived and gave the name to the high bluff and district on 
the Tombigbee still preserved as Nanna Hubba, just above the 
junction with the Alabama Eiver. Not a great deal is known 
of these. Like all the other native Indians west of the lower 
Alabama, they were branches of the Choctaw stock, but the 
Naniabas kept up an independent tribal organization, until 
finally they, too, wei-e absorbed in the Mobilians. Their 
mounds are still seen in the woods, and bones are found about 
the Seaboard wharf. Arrowheads abounded back of Beau- 
fort's Landing on the line between Mobile and Washington 
counties, and a little bronze pot has been picked up not far 
away. 

The Mobilians are better known. They, too, were Choctaws 
by race, but are supposed to be the remains of the people who, 
under Tuskaloosa, a century and a half before, had been driven 
from their homes in Maubila up on our Alabama, by the stern 
De Soto. Their misfortunes had not ended then. The French 
found all over the Mobile delta evidences of a former laroe and 
peaceful population, with roads and fields, and heard of recent 
devastation by the Conchaques (Apalachicolas) from the north- 
east. Iberville estimated them in his day as even with the 
Tohomes amounting only to three hundred and fifty families, 
and we do not hear of their having then more than one larg-e 
settlement, although many of them lived scattered among the 
islancls as well as on the mainland. 

This settlement was six leagues above Fort Louis, ^ and there- 
fore not far from the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee 
rivers. Some maps show them above, about Mt. Vernon 
Landing, but some later ones, also, below near Seymour's 
Bluff. Five leagues above the fort the observing Penicaut saw 
one of their religious festivals. The Naniabas, Tohomes, and 
Mobilians united in this ceremony, in which they invoked their 
deity in a cabin by jongler? At their September feast they 
had a custom which reminded our Frenchman of his classic 
studies. Like the Spartans, he says, they whipped their chil- 
dren. until the blood came, to make them callous to what their 
enemies might do to them. If the child was sick, this treat- 
ment was visited on the mother. 

They had clay gods, too, as we know from the figures of 
1 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 422. 2 5 /jj^^ p_ 427. 



92 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

man, woman, child, owl, and bear found by Bienville on some 
island, possibly on the great mound about Bottle Creek. 
Thither they resorted at certain seasons to offer sacrifices, on 
a hill in the cane-brake. Strange to say, we do not read that 
Iberville's taking the figures away to France alienated the 
Mobilians at all, and this perhaps lends color to his theory 
that they were really foreign, of Spanish workmanship. ^ This 
mound of fifty feet is a marvel of industry, as the dirt must 
have been brought in canoes for miles. 

The Mobilians occur several times in the church registers. 
Victorin we shall meet as cure of them and the Apalaches, and 
there are baptisms when no cure is mentioned for them. In 
1715, Iluve baptized Jean Louis, by nation "Mauvila, com- 
monly called Mobilian," with Jean Vallade, called Drapeau, 
a soldier, and his wife as sponsors, and in the same year Le 
Maire baptized Jean, son of Jean, a Mobilian, and Marie Mag- 
deleine, his Sitimacha (Chetimacha) wife. The sponsors were 
also French. Next after the long interval of twenty years Vic- 
torin baptizes two Mobilians. Then, in 1758, comes a little 
slave belonging to the chief of the Mobilians, and in 1759 
Therese, the little daughter of Antoine Abbe and Marie 
Jeanne, Mobilian Indians, with Durand and Mme. De Rous- 
seve as sponsors. As late as March 21, 1761, was baptized 
Jean Baptiste, a Mobilian. 

Of the Apalaches, also, we know considerable. The com- 
mon account is that they fled from attacks of the Alabamas 
(Alibamons) in central Florida and were given shelter by the 
French at the first Fort Louis. ^ Shea says that they had been 
living peaceably with the Spaniards, and had become Catholic 
converts there, when Governor Moore, of South Carolina, made 
a raid, cruelly harried the country, and broke up their settle- 
ment, massacring Indians, priests and all.^ 

1 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 513. The shell banks about Mobile, particu- 
larly those on Bon Secours Bay, Dauphine Island, and at Portersville, con- 
tain ducks and animals and human heads, moulded in clay and burned, often 
of artistic value. These banks are in layers, showing periodic, not contin- 
uous, use, and contain human bones and simple crockery. They may possibly 
point to an earlier race than the red Indians. 

2 Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 76. 

8 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 461 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, 
p. 461 ; Williams's East Florida, p. 212. 



NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 93 

At all events, tliey were settled near the French by 1704, 
and the very first entry in the parish register is the baptism of 
a little Aj^alache boy on September 6 of that year, by Pere 
Davion. Nor did this stand by itself, for the entries during 
many years contain Apalache baptisms. Indeed, this tribe had 
a missionary and chapel of their own.^ Huve came over in 
the Pelican in 1704, and was to be their pastor. He is said 
to have been no linguist, and how he got along with them until 
1721 is hard to imagine. 

For their village, which Bienville had placed near the Mobil- 
ians, was broken up again by their old enemies, the Alibamons, 
and they sought shelter with new Fort Louis. Bienville this 
time assigned them lands on the River St. Martin, a league 
above the fort. This would be at our Three Mile Creek, prob- 
ably extending to Chickasabogue, the St. Louis. Delisle's 
map seems to bear out this location. There they had a church, 
font, and cemetery with a cross. ^ Where now stands some busy 
sawmill, and ships take on cargoes, Huve said mass before 
this, the only Catholic tribe. 

Their great feast day was that sacred to St. Louis, for whom 
their parish was named, when all dressed in mask and danced 
the rest of the day after service, with French or Indians, fur- 
nishing their guests refreshment also. The women wore their 
black hair in one or two plaits down the back, like the Spanish 
women, and dressed in cloaks and skirts, and the men in coats, 
quite in civilized style. They chanted the psalms in Latin at 
service, and had mass every Sunday and feast day. Penicaut 
says that they were devout, and except their mixed language 
(of Spanish and Alibamon) there was nothing savage about 
them.^ They were excellent Catholics. 

The Apalaches are often mentioned in the church registers, 
and sometimes Christian Mobilians, Chattos, and Tensaws, too. 
Such entries are irregular, however. 

The first mention after Davion 's baptism is in the next year, 
when Huve baptized, in the ordinary forms of the church, a 
little Apalache girl born in lawful wedlock, named Fran^oise 
by the second chief of that nation. Then comes a three years' 

^ Shea, Catholic Church in the Colonies, pp. 546, 552, 

^ Ibid., p. 554. 

3 Penicaut, 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 461, 486, 487. 



94 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

blank, until Salome, wife of the chief of the Apalaehes, stands 
godmother for Alexander, a Schitimacha slave of fifteen be- 
longing to the missionaries of Fort Louis, and in the same 
year Joseph, an Apalache, was godfather for a little Chatto 
girl, both before Huve. The Spanish antecedents of the tribe 
appear more clearly in 1710, when Salome, daughter of Cha- 
risto and Thereise his wife, was bajjtized. The sponsors were 
Lasso and Salome again, and Huve records that they were all 
"Appalaches." Towards the end of the year, their chief and 
his wife have baptized a little slave of theirs, a Paniouacha by 
nation, — for, as we have seen, the Lidians held slaves, too. 
They named this one Marie Susanne. 

The next year, and thus probably after their second change 
of site, we have several other Apalache names. In January, 
there is Jean, son of Trigours and Minita his wife, with Mia 
and Oussima as sponsors, and later in the same month Pierre 
Michel, son of Piro and Oussima herself, with Michel and 
Soussia as godfather and mother. Li November, Le Maire 
baptizes also Laurent, son of Charles and his wife Therese, 
with Lazo and Salome as parain and maraine, and later in 
that month Jeanne, daughter of Jean and Luce. Le Maire, 
in naming her sponsors, translates Ouan (no doubt the Spanish 
Juan) into Jean, and Ouanne into Jeanne. In December 
comes Joseph, son of Sanchez and Ouanne his wife. The god- 
mother was Mariane. In a preceding entry we see Laurence 
and Laurentia, too. 

In 1713, Varlet mentions Joseph de la Riviere as interpreter 
of the Apalaehes, and next year Huve baptizes Marie Joseph, 
daughter of Ouan and Francisqua, his wife. The sponsors 
were Piro and Maria lousipa. Later in that year he also bap- 
tizes Caterine. In 1716, we meet perhaps the last-named 
sponsors bringing their own child Michelle to the font, — 
"Piero autrement Pierre," and "Ousipa ou Josephe." The 
sponsors are Rene Salot, a soldier, and Anhile, an Apalache. 
In the middle of the same year is a son of Josef and Fran- 
cisque, with French sponsors in Francis Carriere and the wife 
of Claude Parent, prominent people. 

In 1717, we find four large Apalache children baptized by 
Le Maire with the names Emmanuel, Marie Therese, Alex- 
andre Joseph, and Henriette Marie Salome. The second is 



NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 95 

worthy of note as the son of an Englishman and an Apalache, 
and as having Huve for godfather. The sponsors of the last 
were Jean Baptiste Ouachita, a domestic of the missionaries, 
and Marie Therese, an Apalache. This was before the reign 
of the celebrated Austrian queen Maria Theresa, so that the 
name is not in honor of her. Later in the year, Huve was to 
baptize four small Apalache boys, all of whose names are not 
decipherable. 

From that time on, the register contains fewer Apalache bap- 
tisms, although some occur. In April, 1721, however, we 
have several entries by Father Charles, Barefoot Carmelite 
and "Cure des Apalaches," a title never used by Huve. He 
probably kept a separate book for his Indian flock, for no 
Apalaches seem to be mentioned in the Mobile register when 
he acts in the absence of the regular cure, Mathieu. 

This suggests the idea that probably at this time, when 
Law's Company was forcing the growth of the colony at an 
extravagant pace, came the third change of location of this 
friendly tribe. Their St. Louis tract we shall find granted 
others in 1733. We know that at some time they moved over 
across the bay from the city, where the eastern mouth of the 
Tensaw River still presei'ves their name. They seem to have 
lived in part on an island there, for in Spanish times it is men- 
tioned as only recently abandoned. The first indication of 
this change on the valuable maps so profusely given by Justin 
Winsor is on Kitchen's of 1747, but it is also on a French coast 
map dated three years earlier. Their main seat was at and 
above what we now know as Blakely. Bayou Solimd probably 
commemorates Salome, so often named in the baptisms. 

On November 12, 1721, Mathieu baptizes Michel, whose 
godparents were Pierre and Michel, all Apalaches, but there 
are no more then for several years. In 1726, the daughter of 
Christian "Appanaches" is mentioned, and next year is the 
baptism of Therese, a Catholic Apalache, with Indian sponsors. 
The following year we read of the baptism of Franc^oise, a 
Hiamase (Yamassee?) refugee among the Apalaches of St. 
Louis, a dependent of that parish. In 1734, we hear of Yic- 
torin, missionary apostolic of the Apalaches and Mobilians, 
who acts at Mobile in the absence of Father Mathias, and in 
1737, Pierre Lorandini, sergeant, was to stand godfather for 



96 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

an Apalache boy. In 1741-42, we know Jean Francois was 
"cure des Apalaches," and two years later, "f. Prosper pretre 
missionaire " to tliem. So tliey seem quite continuously to have 
had a missionary of their own. In 1751 was baptized an Apa- 
lache sauvagesse, born in lawful wedlock to Marc and Mi- 
chelle, but this is the last mention of the race in the Mobile 
register. If there was an Apalache register,' it has disappeared. 

Their place we find named, in 1741, as "aux Apalaches," 
doubtless that across the bay from the city. The entry recites 
that one De Sorges was buried there, and two months later in 
the same locality his wife was found drowned. A sad family 
scene these entries indicate, — it may be a tragedy. Twenty- 
one years before was the baptism of Jeanne Marguerite, child 
of Pierre Desorges and Marguerite Celesar his wife. Now she 
loses both parents as she herself reaches maturity. 

The death of Nicola Chatelin in the river of the Apalaches 
is mentioned by Ferdinand in 1762, and earlier in the same 
year is the loss also of Joseph Cook in the trip (traversie) from 
the Apalaches to Mobile. 

While we thus know more of the Apalaches on account of 
their church records, traces survive also of other tribes near 
Mobile. 

The Touachas were also refugees from Spanish Florida to 
avoid Alibamon inroads, although Gatschet derives them from 
Tawasa, a village on the Alabama River. Bienville, in 1705, 
established them a league and a half below the first fort, and 
on the change of base they were placed a league above the 
Apalaches. They seem to have been useful at least as hunters.^ 
The only mention of them noticed in the church registers is 
where, in 1716, Huve baptized Marguerite, daughter of a sav- 
age, slave of Commissary Duclos, and a free Taouacha woman. 
The godmother was Mai'guerite Le Svieur. What became of 
them we do not certainly know, but it would seem probable 
that as early as 1713 they had made some change of residence. 
The Creek Toucha, emptying into Bayou Sara some distance 
east of Cleveland's Station on the M. & B. R. R., or, according 
to some, into Mobile River at Twelve Mile Island, would seem 
even yet to perpetuate this location, which corresj)onds nearly 

^ 5 Marfi^ry, Decouvertes, pp. 457, 486 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, 
p. 89 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 167. 



NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 97 

with Delisle's map, and one of 1744. As Touacha, it occurs 
a number of times in Spanish documents. 

In some manner, as we have seen, a tribe of Choctaws had 
once separated from the nation west of the Tombigbee, and 
settled among the Sj)aniards of Florida. But they, too, became 
refugees, — expelled, according to Penicaut, by the Spaniards 
themselves.^ This seems to have been about 1709. Bienville 
welcomed this, as every other opportunity, of ingratiating him- 
self with the Indians, and gave them lands on the bay coast in 
a large cove a league in circuit, — "I'Anse des Chactas," — 
extending from our Choctaw Point west around Garrow's 
Bend. They occupied the site of the present city of Mobile, 
and were its first inhabitants. Pickett gives them forty wig- 
wams.^ When Bienville selected this very ground for new 
Mobile, he had to recompense these Choctaws with land on 
Dog River. Maps of 1717 and later show them on the south 
side of that stream, sometimes near the bay, sometimes several 
miles up. Few mounds or other remains have survived, but 
their memory has survived, however, near the city; for from 
them doubtless came the name Choctaw Point, in use under 
the French, and the adjacent Choctaw Swamp. The church 
register mentions the drowning, in 1743, of the Indian Joseph, 
slave of Joseph Laprade, "vers la pointe des Chacteaux." 
Their bend below Frascati, however, was to become L'Anse 
Mandeville. A map of 1744 shows below them, at the mouth 
of Deer River, a settlement of Yamane, jirobably Yamassees 
from Carolina, of whom nothing is known except that, in 
1715, that tribe had revolted against the English and been 
driven west. 

Several "Chatto" baptisms are recorded. It is not certain 
the Indians of Dog River are meant, but this is probable, as 
these were the nearest and most closely allied to the French of 
all the Choctaws. That race at large is in the French papers 
spelled "Chactas," not "Chatto." 

In 1708-9, and consequently while they were still living 
on the present site of Mobile, five Chatto children were bap- 
tized by Huve. The first was named Ouan for his father, the 
godfather being Serate. The second was Pharesco, son of 

^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 479. 

2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 128 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 64. 



98 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Domiugiio and Lucia (the godfather being Gaspar), and also 
an older daughter of the same parents, named Maria. The 
fourth was Theresia, daughter of Gaspar and Magdeleine. 
And then came Andrich, or Andre, son of Pierre and Marie, 
having as godparents Ouan, chief of the Chattos, and Hiacinta, 
widow of the deceased chief (Felician) of the same nation. In 
1713, three more were baptized by Varlet, — Pierre, whose 
father had the same name, Paul, whose parents had no Chris- 
tian names, and Anne, daughter of Francisco. The godfather 
was the Apalache interpreter Joseph. N.ext year were two, 
spelled "Chakteaux," — Hiacinte, daughter of Thomas and 
Marie, with Pierre Graviche, called Lionnois, as godfather, and 
also Marie, daughter of the little chief Augustin and of Marie. 
All this was in the Choctaw chapel, — ""Le Tout," adds Var- 
let, "dans Loratoire du dit village des Chakteaux." No doubt 
at the same place shortly after was baptized Marie Claude, 
daughter of a negro of M. de Bienville living with the Chak- 
teaux. 

In 1715, Iluve baptized Jacques, a free "Chactat" Indian, 
who had well-known colonists for sponsors, thus showing, as 
often before, the kindly relations between the French and their 
Indian friends. Next year he performed the same service for 
five little ones at "the village of the Chattaux," indicating that 
it was at the well-known place on the south side of Dog River. 
The names, however, have ceased to be Spanish. Thomas, 
Fran^oise, Catherine, Louise, and Jeanne are thoroughly 
French. At the same time was baptized Marie, a four-year- 
old Schitimacha, belonging to the chief of the nation, the 
fruit, we may believe, of that war which brought so many 
Chetimacha slaves from the Mississippi to Mobile. The god- 
father of all was Lionnois again, stated to be resident of the 
village. Some years later there is a casual mention, too, of a 
M. Dubriel as among the " Chaquetaux. " 

These Indians are mentioned seldom after that. In 1720 
is mentioned Marie, of a manage naturel of a slave with a 
Chatta named Capinan. The church did not recognize these 
irregular unions, and it may be that it was with some satisfaction 
that Huve added the note that Capinan had quit her to take 
some one else. In 1729, the record closes with the baptism of 
a "Chactau," whose mother was Christian. 



NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 99 

There is, strange to say, no record of the burial of a Choc- 
taw, nor indeed of more than half a dozen Indians altogether. 
But this is the less remarkable when we remember that the 
death register, even of the French, is very defective. Greater 
attention was paid to the more frequent births than to the 
deaths. 

In many respects, more interesting than the Choctaws were 
the Tensaws, who also lived near the Mobile colony. They 
came originally from the Mississippi River. The Tensaws 
have been called a connection of the Natchez, and like them 
were sun-worshiiJers and kept burning a perpetual fire, but 
the two languages fail to show kinship, i At the destruc- 
tion by lightning of their temple on the Mississippi, they threw 
their children into the fire to appease the offended deity. 
Seventeen were killed before Iberville, who happened to be 
present, could stop them.^ Montigny was missionary, but an 
unsuccessful one, among their villages just about the Bayou 
Manchac. The aborigines nearer the future site of New 
Orleans, the Oumas, waged relentless war against these 
"Tinsas," — so much so that Bienville in sympathy brought 
them, in 1713, to Mobile, and placed them where the Chaoua- 
chas (Taouachas?) had been.^ Delisle gives both tribes at once 
on his map. 

Before the nation was removed to Mobile, we find "Taensa" 
slaves there. In 1708, Le Maire baptized an infant of two 
months, belonging to the tradesman (piarchand) Boutin. The 
age of this child, who was named Vincent, seems to show that 
he was captured in a raid against the tribe while hostile. Two 
years later, Huve baptized a female Tan^a of nineteen, belong- 
ing to Jean de Can, whom we have met before. Next year 
the church registers show us also Jeanne, child of a Tensa 
female of Mr. Charli, baptized by Davion and Le Maire, too. 
In 1712 comes Marie, daughter of Sieur Rochon's Tensa slave, 
and on February 12 of next year is one of the few entries 
recognizing marriage between Frenchman and Indian. It 
relates the baptism of Claude, legitimate son of Rene Le Boeuf 
and Marguerite, a Ten^a, his wife. The sponsors were Claude 
Parent and the wife of Jean Louis. 

^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 128 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 32. 

2 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 397. s /^j-^^.^ pp. 508, 509. 



100 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

In 1714, we find Marie, daughter of a Chitlraacha slave of 
Sieur de Chateaugue and a Tanc^a slave of Sieur de Boisbriant, 
baptized by Huve. By this time the tribe had been removed 
to Mobile, but, except Pistolet, in 1761, son of a "Thinsa," 
the priests of Mobile seem never to have baptized any of the 
nation unless as slaves, — when the Indians could not help 
themselves. They were joined to their idols. Indeed, in that 
long interval there is no mention of the tribe, excejat that, in 
1760, there was baptized a negro belonging to St. Michel, 
"habitant des Thinsa." 

They had also by that time settled across the Mobile delta 
and given the name to the great river corresponding on the 
east to the Mobile River on the west. Exactly when this was 
we do not know, but they are shown over there, on the west 
bank of the Tensaw, on a French coast chart of 1744. They 
numbered a hundred wigwams, and dwelt then more especially 
on a bluff, for a long time afterwards called for them, above 
the Apalaches, and not far from our Stockton. ^ The Tensaw 
River had before that been called Branche Espagnole, but 
Spanish River has since been limited to a branch extending 
from near the Tensaw mouth to the Mobile. The eastern arm 
of the Tensaw at its mouth is still called the Apalache, as we 
have seen. 

In 1766, and consequently in British times, the register was 
to mention the death of Ph. Klimpetre on his habitation at 
the Tensaws {des Thinsa), where he was also buried, and the 
same mention was to be made later of Francois Colin. 

Such were the near neighbors of the French at Mobile. It 
is a tribute not less to the justice of the colonists than to the 
amiability of the Indians that no trouble occuri^ed between the 
white and red men. Peaceably they lived side by side for 
many years, and in fact, when the fortunes of war brought a 
change of flag, these Indians went west with their protectors. 
Even as late as the early part of the nineteenth century, Ten- 
saws, for example, were still to be found in Louisiana. 

The others, however, have lost their identity and cannot be 

traced. The exact site of their Mobile domiciles, indeed, is 

now difficult to fix. All changed their locations from time to 

time as they exhausted the hunting-grounds, soil, or pasture, to 

1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 128. 



NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 101 

which the "old fields" and "old towns" common in their 
names and country still bear witness, and the evidences of the 
Choctaws, who lived less in towns than the Creeks, are often 
scanty. Experience taught them to keep near bluffs in order 
to avoid the freshets of the rivers, but they did not always live 
on these exposed places, and certainly preferred to cultivate 
lower lands. 

Beyond mounds, which mark the Choctaw rather than the 
Creek races, Indians leave few permanent memorials. As with 
their tracks through the forest, which the last warrior conceals, 
the next coming civilization obliterates the traces of the red 
man. Where they fished and hunted are still the same waters, 
trees, and landscape, but the natives have gone, and only an 
occasional name survives to recall the first occupants. 



PART III. 
THE DEPARTMENT OF MOBILE. 

1722-1763. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 

With the removal of tlie capital from Mobile, that city lost 
many inhabitants as well as much prestige. She was no longer 
the point from which the Mississipjji valley was explored and 
settled. She sank to a place second to New Orleans, although 
Dauphine Island for a while still remained perhaps the favorite 
port for immigration. 

But Mobile continued to be the centre, of Indian influence 
and diplomacy. There the annual congress was held, and on 
account of the dependent posts up its rivers, it was the point 
from which the English Atlantic colonies dreaded French 
inroads.^ The geography of the country favored it. It must 
be remembered that south of the east and west Ohio valley 
there was a north and south one, whose largest rivers, draining 
from the AUeghanies on the east to near the Mississippi River 
itself on the west, emptied into the Bay of Mobile. Smaller 
than the disputed basin of the Mississippi, or even that of the 
Ohio, what we have called the Alabama basin was as fertile as 
either, and in the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks had In- 
dian tribes larger and braver than any south of the Great 
Lakes and west of the mountains. By 1721, between Carolina 
and the Mississippi were about nine thousand warriors, of 
whom over a third had been weaned from English influence by 
the French. Mobile could not fail to be an important place. 
Bossu mentions its trade in tar and furs, the last monopolized 
by the officers in his days, and says that quite a trade in provi- 
sions was carried on with the Spanish in Pensacola. The in- 
habitants, he says, were industrious. He mentions in connec- 
tion with the Indians, maize, millet, beans, potatoes, melons, 
and gourds, also. The watermelons he pronounces delicious.^ 

^ Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 170. 

2 Peiiieaut, in 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 579 ; Bossu's Travels, pp. 221, 
224, 230. 



106 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

But Mobile, when Charlevoix wrote in 1722, was already 
suffering from the emigration to the Mississippi. He describes 
the River Maubile as narrow and winding but rapid, although 
but a small boat {pettiaugre) could ascend when its waters 
were low. 

"We have on this river," he says, "a fort which has been 
a long time the principal post of the colony ; yet the lands are 
not good, but its situation near the Spaniards makes it con- 
venient for trading with them, and this was all they sought for 
at that time." He goes on to speak of the reported discovery 
of a quarry, which might prevent its entire desertion. The 
inhabitants were unwilling to cultivate a soil which did not 
answer their pains. "Nevertheless," he says, "I do not believe 
that they will easily resolve to evacuate the fort of Maubile, 
though it should serve only to keep in our alliance the Tchactas, 
a numerous people, who make us a necessary barrier against 
the Chicachas, and against the savages bordering on Carolina. 
Garcelasso de la Vega in his history of Florida speaks of a 
village called Mauvilla, which no doubt gave its name to the 
river, and to the nation that was settled on its borders. These 
Mauvillians were then very powerful; at present there are 
hardly any traces left of them."^ 

Mobile was one of the nine districts into which Louisiana 
was, in 1721, divided by the Company, the others being New 
Orleans, Biloxi, Alibamons, Natchez, Yazoo, Natchitoches, 
Arkansas, and Illinois. In each of these was one or more 
forts or trading stations. At Mobile and the first three places 
named, goods were sold at fifty per cent advance on prices in 
France, but at the others higher. Toulouse was in this favored 
class because of Carolina competition. Leaf tobacco and rice 
were bought for the company at the warehouses in Mobile, 
New Orleans, and Biloxi.^ 

At the annual Indian congress, Bienville met and feasted 
the friendly tribes and distributed presents. As a matter of 
policy he did not permit them to come to the new settlements 
at Biloxi and New Orleans, and Mobile was thus always the 
great rendezvous for the savages.^ Choctaws they generally 

1 Charlevoix's Journal, p. 190 (3 French's Historical Collection). 

2 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, p. 273. 
2 Bossu's Travels, p. 221. 



THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 107 

were, but the Alibamons also often came and exchanged talks 
and smoked the decorated calumet of peace with the French. 
Penlcaut says Mobile was retained from its connection with 
Fort Toulouse and .the Indians. ^ 

The failure of Law had embarrassed the Company, and the 
forcing process with all its monopoly was not remunerative. 
The directors were dissatisfied, and Bienville knew it. But he 
certainly did the best with the materials sent him,, and, despite 
the character of many of the colonists, Louisiana as a whole 
was improving. 

By the twenties, the culture of indigo had been added to that 
of rice and tobacco, while the fig-tree had been introduced from 
Provence, and the orange from Hispaniola. Slavery was of 
much aid in developing the country. The Company had at 
least succeeded in giving Louisiana a good start. ^ One evi- 
dence was the need for legislation. Bienville issued in March, 
1724, a short code to cover almost all their relations, and it 
has gone into history as the Black Code. 

It had intolerant features, of course. It banished Jews, and 
established Catholicism alone, while an ordinance of the same 
year severely punished maiming stock. But the name of the 
Code really relates to its main subject, the negroes. It forbade 
marriage between the whites and blacks, and regulated slavery. 
It was in effect a copy of Louis XIV. 's code for St. Domingo,^ 
a French conquest of the preceding century. 

But this was the last act of the governor. Bienville was 
recalled. He and Chateaugue came over to Mobile, and thence 
to Dauphine Island, to sail for France on the Bellona. Their 
baggage was ready, and on that Easter Monday, as the little 
boats that were to take them aboard reached the shore, the ship 
fired signals of distress. She suddenly began to sink before 
their eyes. Down she went in fair weather, with many of the 
crew, without a warning, and there she doubtless now lies in 
the shifting sands southeast of the island.* 

The two brothers returned to New Orleans. They soon 
found other shipping, and finally arrived safe in France. 
There Bienville was to remain for several years, and of Cha- 

' 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 579. " 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 265. 

3 King's Bienville, p. 273. « Ibid., p. 274. 



108 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

teaugu^ we only know that he was afterwards governor of 
Cayenne. 

Boisbriant was called from the Illinois, where he had been 
since 1722, ^ to command Louisiana ad interhn ; but soon 
Perier was appointed governor, and, in 1726, he came out. All 
of Bienville's friends, Chateaugue and Boisbriant included, 
were removed from office. There was a new deal, a new 
political slate. If the charges against Bienville were true, 
improvement should immediately follow. 

With Perier 's administration, which consisted largely in 
severity towards the Natchez, we have little to do, except so 
far as that misguided policy aroused the Chickasaws, and even 
after a while a faction of the Choctaws, too, and was to make 
life in the Mobile district unsafe. It brought on, in 1729, the 
massacre of the garrison at Fort Rosalie on the Mississippi. 
Of this he notified Mobile by courier. A war of extermina- 
tion by the French was to follow. 

In February, 1728, the Company sent over, for marriage, 
some girls who were of virtuous raising. They were each pro- 
vided with a little trunk (cassette) of clothing, from which they 
received the nickname of cassette girls. Descent from these 
was in after days to be held a mark of good family. ^ Not 
many of them could have come to Mobile, for the population 
there was diminishing. It held at this time but sixty families, 
besides the thirty of the Apalaches near by, while New Orleans 
had increased to six hundred families.^ 

In 1722, Mandeville was commandant at Moliile, nnd on his 
death, about 1727, Diron D'Artaguette, son of the old ordonna- 
teur, succeeded. We find Beauchamps in command in 1731. 
We know that the return of Bienville as governor the next 
year was hailed with delight, for he was ever a favorite with 
the colonists. He came as a royal governor, too, for, in 1731, 
the Company, as Crozat before them, had surrendered Louisi- 
ana to the crown. The venture looked more like war than 
money-making, and they were glad to let the regent take 
charge again. The administration was to be through governor 
and a reorganized Superior Council of thirteen members. Be- 

1 2 White's New Recopiladon, pp. 439, 655. 

2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 273 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 264. 
^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p, 567. 



THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 109 

sides officials, the Council was made up of six councillors, an 
attorney-general, and a clerk. To aid the colony, the king 
in 1731 exempted imports and exports from duty for ten 
years, to be prolonged to thirty. ^ 

While BienviUe was taking up the cares of office, he found 
his old home. Mobile, in great distress. In 1733, D'Artaguette 
writes from there that the smallpox is virulent, and that, too, 
right after a disastrous hurricane had swept over the place and 
destroyed crops and provisions.^ D'Artaguette was commis- 
sary then, but commandant next year. It was in 1733 that he 
received a grant of the extensive St. Louis Tract between our 
Three Mile Creek and Chickasabogue, but we do not learn 
what use he made of it. 

D'Artaguette had returned from France with Bienville, but 
was not to prove of much assistance. Not but that he was 
brave enough: Bienville could hardly keep him from march- 
ing with one hundred French and numerous Choctaw allies 
against the threatening Chickasaws. This would have been 
the kind of adventure his daring Swiss lieutenant Grondel, 
famous for duels, would have delighted in. Could he have 
suggested it? 

The governor came over himself and held a heated Choctaw 
congress at Mobile. He found British influence had in his 
absence invaded even his old allies, and in Adair we learn how 
this was accomplished. Adair was an Indian trader from 
Charleston in 1735 and for many years afterwards, and takes 
all the credit for securing the Choctaw chief Red Shoe. Adair 
was then among the Chickasaws, whom he supplied with Eng- 
lish arms and goods from Carolina by a route north of Forts 
Toulouse and Tombecbe. He was also commissioned to open 
a trade with the Choctaws, and was enabled to do so on 
account of the resentment of the chieftain of Quansheto, 
Shulashummashtabe or Red Shoe, at discovering a Frenchman 
from Tombecb^ in adultery with his favorite wife. Red Shoe 
visited Adair by invitation, and became convinced of the 
advantages of an English alliance. A long Choctaw civil war 
was to be the result. 

^ Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, pp. 279 ; Pickett's Alabama, pp. 263, 330 ; 
1 Martin's Louisiana, pp. 269, 292, 320. 

^ Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, pp. 457, 461. 



110 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

The Choctaws were thus partly alienated, and D'Artaguette 
represented matters worse than they were. People became 
uneasy, then alarmed. They went to mass with guns in hand, 
and finally even prepared, in 1735, to abandon the place and 
retire to New Orleans. But Bienville knew the value of 
Mobile. He forbade this, and reprimanded D'Artaguette for 
thus terrorizing the people. 

On July 16 of this year, a smuggling vessel from Jamaica 
entered the bay. De Velles was sent against her with thirty 
men, but, in the battle on the water twelve miles from the 
fort, was worsted. Seventeen French were killed, and the Brit- 
ish vessel escaped. This only increased the breach between 
D'Artaguette and the governor.^ 

Bienville took up his residence in Mobile this summer, and 
there again met the Choctaw chiefs in grand council. He 
became satisfied finally of their cooperation, and busied himself 
in preparations to attack the Chickasaws from Mobile. Pro- 
visions were to be supplied from New Orleans, artillery from 
France, and troops from several forts. Everything was well 
planned. 

But much miscarried during that fall. The means of trans- 
portation were not promptly furnished, half a cargo of rice 
was lost overboard, and the cannon were never shipped. At 
Mobile there was a delay, too, until bread could be made by 
the bakers. 

At last all was ready (except the cannon), and the expedi- 
tion embarked. Five hundred soldiers were there from the 
garrisons of Natchitoches, Natchez, and Mobile, including, too, 
a company of volunteers from New Orleans and another of 
unmarried colonists, besides forty-five negroes under Simon, 
the brave free black. ^ They embarked in front of Fort Conde 
in thirty large pirogues and as many flatboats. Mobile 
River had never seen so stirring a sight as the expedition that 
gayly rowed off on the morning of that first day of April, 1736. 
The glint of the lilied flags on the boats bearing Bienville and 
his staff was answered by the waving banner of Fort Conde, 
and the salute of the cannon awoke the echoes of the islands in 
front. But gradually the flotilla got out of sight, the seabirds 

1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 333 ; Adair's American Indians, p. 314. 

2 King's Bienville, pp. 294-^296. 



THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. Ill 

settled back to their haunts, and the people dispersed to their 
occupations. For two months they dreamed of victories. 

We have somewhat lost the thread of the development of the 
Mississij^pi valley since Mobile ceased to be the capital, but 
in this Chickasaw war we see something of what had been 
accomplished in the mean while. For Bienville was not relying 
upon his own force alone. He had arranged that D' Artaguette, 
brother of the commissary, should cooperate with three hundred 
men from his post in the Illinois. They were to meet him in 
the enemy's country. 

Bienville selected as his base of supplies what is now Jones's 
Bluff, where the A. G. S. Railroad crosses the Tombigbee, in 
Sumter County, Alabama, above the confluence of the Black 
Warrior. Thither he had dispatched De Lusser to build a 
fort, the one so long useful as Fort Tombecbe. It was in the 
Choctaw country, near the Itomba-igabee Creek, which gave 
its name to the river, and but a few days' march from the Chick- 
asaws. There bread was to be baked for the expedition, but 
little was done until Bienville arrived and built three ovens in 
addition to the one there. 

On the arrival of Bienville's army at the unfinished fort, 
after a trip of twenty-three days from Mobile, there was a 
final conference, May 1, with the Choctaw chiefs, — the faith- 
ful Alabama Mingo and the English-favoring Red Shoe among 
them. D' Artaguette was not heard of, although Bienville 
had sent him word of the change of date, and therefore the 
governor thought D' Artaguette must have had a battle with 
the savages and returned to Fort Chartres. 

By arrangement at the conference, the chiefs were to meet 
the French in force higher up the stream. This part of the 
river journey was accomplished by May 22, and, after building 
there a small fort called Oltibia, the united army of French 
and Choctaws struck through the woods in rainy weather to 
attack the Chickasaws. 

No good feeling prevailed between the French and Choctaws, 
for the English had sown dissension even among these Indians. 
They were more intent on injuring the Chickasaws than aiding 
the French, and precipitated an action against Bienville's judg- 
ment at Schiouafalay, the first of the fortified villages which 
they reached. 



112 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

This, the battle of Ackia, was a disaster from the first. The 
Chickasaws were always brave, and now the English flag 
floated over one of their villages, and Englishmen actively 
aided the savages in the conflict. The men led by Chevalier 
De Noyan were routed, and left that gallant leader alone. De 
Lusser was killed, and Grondel, of the Karer grenadiers, all 
but dead, was rescued only after several of his followers had 
been slain trying to recover his senseless body. The Choc- 
taws, for their part, did more howling than fighting. The 
repulse of the French was complete. 

Now it was that the absence of artillery was most felt. It 
was sacrificing men to send them to attack the palisaded vil- 
lages protected by loopholes, and Bienville had no cannon to 
batter the defenses. 

He finally determined to retreat, and did so with difficulty, 
but fortunately was not followed. The water was so low at 
Oltibia that they could hardly descend the stream to Fort 
Tombecbe. 

Thence Bienville went on to Mobile, learning on the way of 
D'Artaguette's fate. This soldier set out with one hundred 
and forty whites and about three hundred Iroquois, Arkansas, 
Miami, and Illinois Indians. They duly arrived at the Chicka- 
saw Bluffs (near Memphis), and then learned of the change 
of date. In order to retain his allies, D'Artaguette marched 
into the enemy's country. He was outnumbered, and when 
most of his Indians took to flight, the wounded D'Artaguette, 
the Jesuit Senat, and a few others were captured. Their 
fate was horrible. All were burned alive, but died without 
flinching. 1 

The loss of these men was bad enough, but even worse was 
the capture of D'Artaguette's papers, revealing Bienville's 
plans, and thus enabling the Chickasaws and English traders 
among them the more easily to defeat at Ackia the expedition 
from Mobile. 

D'Artaguette, the brother left behind, was ahnost crazed 
with grief, and Bienville had to face there many whose homes 
were darkened by the losses of this first Chickasaw war. 
For others, too, in Mobile had to mourn the loss of friend or 
kin. The Swiss De Lucer, or De Lusser, who had been sent 
^ Bossu's Travels, p. 311. 



THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 113 

forward to build this Fort Tombecbe at Jones's Bluff, ^ did not 
come back, nor did De Juzan and many others. The daring 
Grondel (later to command the Swiss of the Halwill regiment 
in Fort Conde) had been thought dead, too, but although 
it was long before his desperate wounds were healed, he lived, 
destined for the cross of St. Louis, and was to be at Mobile 
for over twenty years. Indeed, he was to be in the Bastile in 
1765, and to outlive the terrors of the French Revolution. ^ 

The Translated Records, in 1736, speak of Jean Belzaguy, 
deceased, the widow Verneuil, and apparently of a dead ser- 
geant, Beauvais. These may be other reminders of the fatal 
day of Ackia. Terrepuy sold Girard, for two hundred livres, 
the lot he had acquired at auction of the Beauvais property. 
If this included a house, as seems intended, pilot Girard 's pur- 
chase would show that the defeat had much depressed real estate 
at Mobile. Beyond its rear, fronting the woods, we have no 
means of identifying this or the few other city places which we 
know of. The grant, in 1737 and 1738, to Mme. De Lusser 
of the island in Tensaw River, which had been abandoned by 
the Tensaws, and that on the mainland are more easily located, 
but could hardly have been then of much use or value. Were 
they intended as a pension to the soldier's widow? 

Bienville realized better than any one else the disastrous 
result of the Chickasaw campaign. It was undertaken because 
the Cliickasaws had sheltered the fugitive Natchez ; it must be 
retrieved because they had defeated the French. For this 
meant not only the emboldening of the Chickasaws, but that 
the Engflish would throujjh them secure a foothold on the banks 
of the Mississippi. The defeat would also encourage the 
gtowth of the English faction of the Choctaws, Creeks, and 
other friendly tribes, and thus possibly cause great danger to 
the whole French colony. 

Bienville therefore determined on another expedition, and 
spent several years in preparation. As it was by way of the 
Mississippi, however, it is somewhat outside the scope of our 
story, and we can only note that it was made in 1740. Al- 
though, from a soldier's point of view, it was not brilliant and 

1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 334. 

2 Gayarr^'s History of Loiimana, pp. 475, 489, etc. ; Bossu's Travels, 
p. 312. 



114 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

even hardly creditable, it impressed the Chickasaws. It at 
least resulted in their pacification and the safety of the colony. 
It was, however, disappointing to Bienville, and he did not 
conceal the fact. He wrote to the minister that in some way 
his plans of late years all miscarried, and that he would like 
to retire. His request was granted, and Louisiana was soon 
to lose in him her governor and father, too. Although they 
did not know it, the Chickasaws really drove Bienville into 
private life, for, unlike his two involuntary retirements in the 
years before, his resignation this time was .final. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE PKOVINCIAL TOWN. 

Although Mobile, after it ceased to be the capital, was 
at first cut off from the active competition with the English 
colonies which we find in the Mississipj)i valley, yet this also 
at last reached the Alabama basin. As the English were 
pushing over the mountains into the Ohio valley ajid giving 
the French uneasiness in the lake region, so in the south 
their influence increased. The Georgia colony, under the sea- 
to-sea charter of 1732, was a distinct advance in this direction. 
Under that we find Oglethorpe, on January 20 of next year, 
on the site of Savannah and making treaties with the Creeks, 
Cherokees, Chickasaws, and even Choctaws. On the 1st of 
August, 1739, he even held an Indian conference at Coweta 
among the Creeks of Alabama. The English were thus push- 
ing around the south end of the Apalachian ridge towards the 
French on the Gulf of Mexico. This was an easier route than 
the old one over the Carolina mountains, and it was thus more 
efficacious. To this was due the division even among the 
Choctaws. 

This success of the English was the easier that th6 expe- 
rienced hand of Bienville was about to be removed. Although 
not a great general, there is little doubt that, as a negotiator 
among the Indians, he was unequaled in his day. 

While he was quietly preparing to leave, and making mat- 
ters as smooth as possible for his successor, Vaudreuil, torna- 
does devastated the Gulf coast. It was as if nature was angry 
at Bienville's recall. 

September, 1740, is one of the blackest months in the his- 
tory of Mobile, for then the place was visited by two destruc- 
tive cyclones. Crops, warehouses, and shipping alike felt their 
force, and the distress from the lack of food and shelter was 



116 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

heart-rending.^ The storm on September 11, from east south- 
east, lasted for twelve hours. It blew down houses, among 
them Bizoton's store and sailors' refuge (which we may con- 
jecture was near the wharf), and floated off flour and other 
provisions. The port at Dauphine Island was also much 
damaged. Half the island was washed away by the storm, and 
three hundred head of cattle were destroyed. A cannon was 
blown eighteen feet. 

It was about this time that a traveler describes Mobile. In 
a survey of the posts in Louisiana, Dumont says that Fort 
Mobile, as he calls it, is "built of brick aiid fortified by four 
bastions, on Vauban's system, with half -moons, a good ditch, 
a covered way, and glacis. It contains a storehouse, barracks 
for the numerous garrison always kept up here, and a pavilion 
for the commandant, who was, in 1735, the Sieur D'Arta- 
guette, royal lieutenant of the province." 

Dumont goes on to say that he does not understand the 
utility of the post. All supplies are brought from the capital, 
New Orleans, as this place produces only firs and pines and a 
few vegetables, not of the best. The climate, however, is mild 
and healthy, and there is facility for trading with the Span- 
iards. Game is abundant in winter, but in summer the heat 
is excessive, and the inhabitants have to live on fish.^ 

There is no doubt that the removal of the capital and the 
Indian troubles had injuriously affected the place. In 1745, 
the population, outside the garrison, had decreased so that the 
white males were but one hundred and fifty, and negroes of 
both sexes two hundred.^ But this seems to be an increase on 
the sixty families of some years before, and the garrison was 
large, and the place, as ever, the seat of the great Indian con- 
gresses. 

The new governor, Vaudreuil, on March 22 of this year, 
met twelve hundred Choctaw chiefs in council here, and by 
presents cemented the alliance with the French. Red Shoe 
was still an English partisan, and was to divide even the Choc- 
taws into hostile camps. His following was not large, but they 
did much damage, and great was to be the relief felt in Mobile 

1 1 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, p. 515. 

2 Diimont's Memoirs, p. 40 (French's Historical Collection). 
^ 2 Gayarre's History of Louisiana, p. 28. 



THE PROVINCIAL TOWN. 117 

when, in 1748, the death of this active Indian was announced. 
He was shot by a Choctaw for a reward said to have been 
offered by the French. ^ Vaudreuil's negotiations ended the 
revolt, which Bossu says he managed by cutting off supplies of 
ammunition from the friendly Choctaws until they forced the 
hostiles to peace. 

It was in Red Shoe's time that Vaudreuil found it necessary 
to palisade Mobile. It had never been done before, so far 
as we know. But 1747 had witnessed a hostile expedition 
down the Mississippi of Chickasaws and Muscogees, and even 
the Choctaws were not all loyal now. For a while the French 
even thought of abandoning Fort Tombecbe. The Indians 
were bolder, the colonists more timid. For Bienville was gone. 

Despite Indian troubles and palisading, it was from this time, 
the year of Red Shoe's death, that we have the first expansion 
of the town beyond its original limits in the grant of a tract 
two arpens and four toises wide by twenty -five arpens deep on 
the west to Mme. De Lusser. This land probably fronted the 
river at first south of the inhabited town, say about the foot 
of our Eslava Street, and we know extended west even across 
Broad Street south of Dauphin. Its course is perplexing to 
us, cutting diagonally across our existing streets, but it is easily 
explained. It was merely continued straight in the line even 
Eslava Street would take, if projected according to its course at 
the river. The fact is, that the modern city developed best 
north of the fort, and the streets there were rmi out first; so 
that when the southern part built up west of Conception Street, 
its streets had to change their course to conform to the river 
bend above. This De Lusser tract, the one surviving French 
city grant, shows how the streets would have run if the town 
south of the fort had developed first. 

In fact, the De Lusser marked a decadence, for it was an 
abandonment of the old plan of 1711, which ran out streets 
and squares far to the west. This grant was a recognition 
that, while land a few hundred feet south of the fort might do 
for farming, it would not now be needed for city purposes. In 
fact, Mme. De Lusser cleared only such as she needed for her 
slaves, and built cabins in which she lodged them. 

^ 2 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, pp. 30, 41 ; Bossu's Travels, p. 316. 
See Adair's American Indians, pp. 320, 328. 



118 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

For some years little of interest is recorded. So much so 
that early history even was not always remembered. Dumont 
may have never been in Mobile, and, indeed, from his descrip- 
tion, this seems to have been the case. But passing strange 
it is that, in his introductory sketch purporting to give the 
history of Louisiana, he seldom if ever mentions Mobile, and 
speaks of Dauphine Island as the first seat of the colony. 
While this leads one to distrust his book, it seems also to show 
that the place had much declined for an inquisitive stranger 
not to learn of its famous history. And yet its fort was still 
the finest in Louisiana. In 1751, we read that the troops 
there numbered four hundred French and seventy -five Swiss. ^ 
Vaudreuil was not content merely with fortifying Mobile 
against the Choctaws, but he also undertook, in 1752, an expe- 
dition from there up the Tombigbee against the Chickasaws. 

His fleet of boats followed Bienville's route up the river to 
Fort Tombecbe, where he remained some days, and then up to 
where Bienville had disembarked at Cotton Gin Port. From 
that point he, too, marched across the country, and with French 
and Choctaws attacked the Chickasaws. He destroyed cabins 
and crops, but met defeat like his predecessor, and made a 
similar retreat. Bienville had had no artillery, while Vau- 
dreuil probably had, but he seems now to have abandoned his 
cannon in the river on account of low water. 

The French halted at Fort Tombecbe, which they enlarged 
and strengthened, and then returned to Mobile. ^ The early 
expedition of Bienville and this of Vaudreuil sixteen years 
later were almost perfect counterparts in design, route, and 
method, except that Vaudreuil had greater resources and know- 
ledge of the country; but the result was the same in each case. 

Let us turn to more peaceful occupations, and see what can 
be learned of lands and people during this troubled time. 

We shall in another place study in detail such deeds as have 
survived, but from the fact that one of this time refers to a 
street by name, it is of interest here. 

In 1749, Alexis Cartier and wife sold to Louis Flandrin a 
lot of the usual twelve and a half by twenty-five toises, and the 
latter, seven years later, deeded it to J. B. Boisdore. In this 

^ 2 Gayarre's History of Louisiana, p. 56. 

2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p. 300 ; Pickett's ^Za Jama, p. 358. 



THE PROVINCIAL TOWN. 119 

second conveyance the land, with its house o£ wood covered 
with bark, apparently adjoins on the one side royal property, 
and on the other that of the widow Barthelemy, "making the 
corner of Rue Conty," or Coucy. It is interesting but difficult 
to study out its location. In the later papers we learn that it 
was "at the corner of the square opposite the commissary's 
office," and also that it faced the river. It must therefore be 
one of the corners made by Conti with the west side of Royal. 
As the block was opposite the commissariat, it would seem to 
be the southwest corner, but the fact that this would be in the 
barracks square makes it difficult to understand how it could 
on one side be bounded by private property. The price, in 
1759, was fifteen hundred livres. 

The land records go on all through this period; indeed, are 
more voluminous now than earlier. Not a great many have 
survived the ravages of war and time, and no government 
grants of city lots are found. But there are private sales and 
exchanges between the inhabitants before Dubourdieu or other 
royal notary, often signed by cross. The notary in 1749 was 
Dupuisier, 1756 Marcellin, 1759 Duparquirien. The land is 
described with reference to other lands and owners, and to street 
by name only the one time just named, although "streets" are 
often spoken of. How tantalizing this to the antiquary seek- 
ing to trace the origin of street names! Former owners are 
given, sometimes back to the first settler, and it would seem 
that the original deeds were deposited in the register's office, 
and a copy given to the owner. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SOME OLD FAMILIES. 

By the middle of the century, the Mobile country had been 
well explored and settled, both about the sound and bay, and 
far up the rivers, too. Indian disturbances would play their 
part, but names would remain even when some of the planta- 
tions were abandoned. 

Ahnost all the names about Mobile, particularly of the 
watercourses, were given by the French, and are found on 
their maps and in their private and public documents. Strange 
to say, the Tombecbe is not on many French maps. It is 
almost always called Mobile River, — so on Homann about 
1720, Dumont, Du Pratz 1757, and others. Sometimes it is 
named for the Chickasaws among whom it rose, and by the 
English Coxe for the Choctaws, but only occasionally it re- 
ceived the name Tombecbe, which became usual under the 
British. The Alabama, however, ahnost uniformly was called 
R. des Alibamons, except by Coxe 1722, who names it Coza, 
or Coussa. 

Delisle is the real founder of modern geographical science, 
and his maps of Louisiana, for instance 1703, are valuable. 
Danville's map of Louisiana, 1732-52, is for Mobile points 
the best of all.^ It calls for Baye de la Mobile, has Pte. de la 
Mobile, and the now familiar Baye Minet, Ecor Rouge, R. 
aux Poissons (low down on which some maps give a waterfall). 
Isle Dauphine, with Islets aux Grands Goziers out towards 
the channel entrance, and our Little Dauphine Island is Isle a 
Guillori, with I. aux Herons nearer Pte. aux Huistres. There 
is also Pte. aux Pins, and R. a Derbane is not yet changed 
to La Batterie. Les Jones (grass islands) show the break- 
waters of Portersville Bay, but Isle aux Herbes (Coffee Island) 
is not given, nor the Passe a Barreau to the east. The bay at 

* See it in Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 59 ; as to Delisle, pp. 63, 74. 



SOME OLD FAMILIES. 121 

Choctaw Point is marked two fathoms, and all below is three, 
— an imi^rovement on Delisle's two and a half. Miragouane 
seems nearer Grosse Pte., but Belief ontaine between Rivieres 
aux Poules and Chevreuil and R. aux Chiens are the same. 
Chacteau Bienville in our Garrow's Bend we have seen, but 
Chaeteau Sauvage with two village marks, one on each side of 
Dog River, at different places, would seem to point to the 
Choctaws, whom Bienville had transplanted there. 

Of the people, we of course know more of the residents of 
Mobile town, but, besides Boissy near our Toulminville, the 
Baudins on Miragouane or Mon Louis Island, and the Car- 
rieres over near Bay Minette, we find traces of some of the 
many settlers up Mobile River still mentioned even after the 
change of flag. 

Most of their names are lost to us, but, as a southern Aca- 
dian race, they tilled the river banks, and the smoke from 
■ homes of thrifty settlers rose amid the figs and vines from 
Mobile up beyond the fork of the rivers. Gayety was not lack- 
ing, and pirogues carrying pleasure parties wovild pass the 
farmer or the hunter taking his products to town, or hail the 
solemn Indian in the bayous. 

We should naturally expect to meet them mostly about the 
bluffs, not on the swamp lands predominant below Twenty- 
one Mile Bluff, and so it was. This, the first highland, was 
occupied by Beauchamps, who sold to Grondel, for whom the 
plantation was called St. Philippe, and a little promontory 
almost making up a part of it is even yet sometimes called for 
La Prade. Lizard Creeks across in the delta were long named 
for Beauchamps, and Bayou Registe a little above we have 
noticed as at least certainly French. Creole Dubrocas, includ- 
ing the Brus, have long lived near Twenty-one Mile Bluff, 
although the French grant places B. Dubroca south of Bayou 
Sara. 

About the site of the old fort we do not find settlers, but 
the well-known La Tours seem to have been near the river 
bend a mile above. Bayou Mathieu across in the delta may 
commemorate the cure of this name, and Krebs Lake perpetu- 
ates some one of that family. 

The De Lussers, at the close of the French period, certainly 
lived at the north end of the delta. Where the Tensaw leaves 



122 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

the Mobilians and Apalaclies, one plan shows the Parents, and 
not far away was Favre. 

Eleven leagues from Mobile, and therefore near what is now 
called Chastang's, the Le Sueur s at one time had a plantation 
at a bluff on the west side of the river. It was afterwards 
the property of Narbonne. The description, owing to court 
proceedings, has survived in some detail. In 1756 the house 
was new, thirty feet long by twenty wide, a filled-in frame of 
posts, and roofed with bark. It had six windows and two 
doors and a clay chimney, with a gallery at one gable ; there 
was also a lean-to (appeMlf^ kitchen with chimney. To one 
side was a chicken house, and to the right of the yard (cow) 
a large structure sixty by thirteen feet, surrounded by posts 
and piling, covered with bark, used as a lodging for slaves. 
On the other side was a barn, twenty-five by eighteen feet, 
with lean-to and chimney. The whole was inclosed by piling 
(pieux), making a yard twenty-five toises square. The place 
faced on the river fifteen arpens by two deep, and across the 
river there was another field (desert) ten arpens front by two 
deep. 

To this time we must assign the adjacent Chastang settle- 
ment near Chastang's Bluff, still represented by the large and 
interesting colored Creole colony who live in the vicinity. 
They claim descent from Dr. John Chastang of Spanish times, 
but really go back to the French period, of which their 2)^(018 
is an interesting reminder. 

The church registers give the history of some families quite 
in detail, and of these it will be interesting to select for fviller 
notice the Le Sueurs and De Lussers, whose out-of-town homes 
we have just noted. 

In the fascinating pages of Penicaut we learn of one Le 
Sueur who, in 1700, went from Biloxi in charge of an expedition 
up the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and to the Sioux 
west of our Lake Michigan, in order to find a copper mine on 
Green River, of which he had known in previous years. He 
had had a post on the upper Mississippi in 1695, and discov- 
ered the Minnesota, which he named St. Peter River. These 
former expeditions must of course have been by way of Can- 
ada. He had come to Louisiana on the voyage of 1699, but 
had spent several years among the Sioux, and it was on account 



SOME OLD FAMILIES. 123 

of his knowledge thus acquired of the Indians that Iberville so 
highly recommended him as suited to induce the vast resettle- 
ment of nations which this leader planned. The Canadians 
slyly intimate that the partiality was due mainly to their con- 
nection by marriage, Le Sueur having married the other's 
cousin-german.i 

We do not know much more of Le Sueur, except that he 
spent the winter at the north in his Fort D'Huillier, where his 
name is perpetuated by a county in Minnesota, and in 1701 
came back with thirteen hundred pounds of green earth, which 
he took to France. The result of the assay Penicaut does not 
know. 2 

The church registers throw light upon the subsequent fam- 
ily history, for it must be his widow, Bienville's cousin-ger- 
man, whom we find in 1708 as the mother of Jean and Mar- 
guerite, who act as sponsors for a Barraud child. Next year 
the son's name is given as Jean Paul, and a sister Marie is 
mentioned, who, by the way, cannot write her name. Mar- 
guerite we find still mademoiselle in 1722, but Marie was two 
years before wife of Sieur La Tour, captain of a company, 
probably the commandant of Fort Toulouse. La Tours were 
later to have their residence on a plantation up in the Mobile 
delta, although this one is mentioned, in 1727, as then majorat 
New Orleans. 

Six years before this, we find a Mr. Pierre Le Sueur named 
as officer of the garrison at Mobile, and then, years later, men- 
tion of a Captain Le Sueur whose full name is not given, and 
J. P. Le Sueur seems to have been, perhaps casually, at Fort 
Toulouse in 1736, when Pechon died. Whether the com- 
mandant at Tombecbe was Jean Paul or Pierre must therefore 
remain uncertain, but the dates well admit of Jean Paul's 
commanding in the twenties at Dauphine Island, and in the 
thirties and later up the Tombigbee. We know that before 
his death at Mobile, in 1751, he was major as well as chevalier 
of the order of St. Louis. He must, therefore, have been a 
man of experience in the service. 

Another family worthy of study is that of the De Lussers. 

^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 400, 401 ; 4 Ibid., p. 607 ; Winsor's Basin of 
the Mi<<sissippi, pp. 32, 51, 52 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 155. 
* 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 419, 423, 426. 



124 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

It has been the romantic dream of antiquaries that the land- 
owning Mme. De Lusser was the widow of the gallant victim 
of Ackia, and that town-lots and, later, more extensive lands 
were grants in the nature of a pension by a grateful sovereign. 
But the recitals of his heirs seem to point to the husband as 
surviving the wife, and enjoying what he (like others of a more 
commercial epoch) put in his wife's name. 

And yet there is good reason to believe that the romantic 
story is true, and the family tradition wrong. 

We have seen that Captain Joseph Christophe De Lusser 
was killed at Ackia in 1736, and there is nothing to point to 
any other De Lusser in Mobile except his wife and children, 
unless a Captain Joseph in the baptismal records be other 
than his son. His wife, and widow, was Marguerite Bouras. 
They had three children. Of these. Marguerite Constance was 
born and baptized September 10, 1720; Marie Joseph was 
another child, but her baptism has not been noticed in the 
church records. She, like her sister, was old enough in 1734 
to attest the baptism of a son of engineer De Vin. On June 
4, 1724, was born the third child, Jean Baptiste. He was 
ondoye by Father Claude at the time of his birth, but for 
some reason the baptismal ceremonies were not supplied until 
February 4, 1735. Then they had a great time of it. Gov- 
ernor Bienville was godfather to the boy, who bore his name 
of Jean Baptiste. Dame Barbe Bonnille was godmother, and 
among the dozen witnesses were Le Sueur and Beauchamps. 

Captain De Lusser was a large slave-owner, and every now 
and then the register shows he had one baptized. After his 
untimely death, his widow continues to acquire slaves, and as 
Mme. De Lusser has them baptized. Sometimes her daugh- 
ters act as godmothers or witness the ceremony, — as October 
1, 1736, where Constance signs as godmother, and March 7 of 
next year, Marie, who always writes her pet name, Manon. 
By 1737 we find J. B. Lusser, officer, witnessing a baptism; 
in 1742 again as enseigne cV infanterie. 

Constance became the wife of Captain Pierre Nicolas Anni- 
bal Chevalier, Sieur De Velle, and April 17, 1740, we find 
young Lusser, his mother, and several others witnessing the 
baptism of the first De Velle child. Marie soon afterwards 
married Lieutenant Francis Marie Joseph Hazeur, and their 



SOME OLD FAMILIES. 125 

first child was baptized in 1742. Both lived to raise large 
families, and ultimately moved to New Orleans. 

We find no mention of children of Jean Baptiste, and the 
children of his sisters Constance and Manon were to claim his 
property on the ground that he left no direct heirs. But it 
would seem that the property he was to leave was acquired 
of his mother, Marguerite Bouras, for the land was given to the 
owner of the slaves, and the owner of the slaves was the Ackia 
widow, mother of Constance, Manon, and Jean Baptiste. How 
he inherited from their mother we do not know, but may well 
have bought out his sisters' interests when they moved away. 

Suffice it, however, that the Mme. De Lusser, from whom 
came the De Lusser Tract and other lands, was probably the 
mother, not the wife, of J. B. De Lusser. 

Another prominent family was that of Francois Cesar Ber- 
noudy, long garde magasin and royal attorney (^inocureur^ at 
Mobile. His wife was Louise Marguerite Belzagui. He was 
dead by 1757, when she signs as Veuve Bernoudy, but they 
seem to have had a large family. A daughter called for her 
was wife of Captain J. B. Aubert, Franc^ois is named as cadet 
/Siiisse, and at the same time Mile. Marguerite and Mile. 
Fran(;oise Bernoudy also appear in the church records. 

"Endless genealogies " could be made of many city families, 
some noble, some bourgeois, but these will suffice. Of fam- 
ilies that will later meet us, however, may be named Charles 
Rochon and his son Pierre, Landry, Delalande, Jean and 
Simon Favre, Durand, Duret, Jusan and H. E. Krebs. Col- 
ored offshoots of the Bernoudy and Favre families were to 
perpetuate those names in land grants. The Pechons, Beau- 
champs, Mandevilles, and others of rank were to disappear 
with the French flag. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FKOM THE cure's WINDOW. 

We have already examined somewhat in detail the history 
of the church at the first Fort Louis, and it will be not without 
interest to see who officiated at the new settlement and learn 
what they did. They have left full records, and we can realize 
their surroundings. 

Le Maire was the cure first after the change of base to the 
present site of Mobile, although from 1712 we find Huve gen- 
erally acting, and good Davion's name also occurs in 1712, in 
1713, and, in fact, as late as 1720, when he signs as the vicar 
of "Kebec." But evidently he was at Mobile only on visits, 
for the regular priest is Huve. 

In 1713 we find Varlet, and after that his name as apostolic 
missionary and then viear-general occurs. Dominique Mary 
Varlet of the Seminary of Quebec was vicar-general of St. 
Vallier, and became afterwards the Bishop of Babjdon. His 
views, however, were unorthodox, and later, when setting out 
for the east, he was discovered to hold Jansenist doctrines and 
was recalled. He did not recant, and was a prominent schis- 
matic in Holland.! His full, good-natured face is preserved 
in Shea. He looks like a man who saw the bright side of 
things, — even of heresy. 

It would be interesting to have a portrait of Alexandre 
Huve (called Huet by Penicaut), who so long went in and out 
at this Gulf city. He baptized and buried French, Indians, 
slave and free, and negroes, too, and often married the French, 
and it is much to his credit that with so long an incumbency 
and under so many rulers we hear no complaint of him. In 
1715, he speaks of himself as priest performing for the present 
the function of cure at Fort Louis, and sometimes as mission- 
ary apostolic in the church of Fort Louis. To officials and the 
1 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 556. 



FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 127 

public, officers and soldiers, freemen and slaves, he ministered 
for several years, and we can imagine his task, particnlarly 
after Law began to send his colonists, no easy one. He knew 
every one and every one's business and relations, and was often 
in their homes. 

His last entry at Mobile was his baptism, January 13, 1721, 
of a negro child. We are told that he went to the Mississippi 
and afterwards had a mission among Indians, but his lack of 
power to acquire language, and his increasing blindness, im- 
pelled him, m 1727, finally to return to France.^ 

As Louisiana could not well be governed in civil affairs from 
Canada on account of the distance, so the same difficulty had 
to be met in religious matters. Bishop St. Vallier could not 
from Quebec directly supervise the great Southwest, and in 
course of time various expedients were devised to meet the 
case. 

First, the Capuchin Louis Francis Duplessis De Mornay, of 
Meudon, was made coadjutor of Quebec. He never came to 
America, and so personally did not solve the question, although 
he succeeded Bishop St. Vallier in 1727. He naturally 
turned to his own order for missionaries, and from 1721 we 
find at Mobile, instead of Huve, the Capuchin Brother Jean 
Mathieu. Huve was the last of the missionaries of the semi- 
nary, and from now on we have the regular orders only, gen- 
erally Capuchins. 

Mathieu signs as "prestre religieux missionaire apostolique." 
At the beginning it is as performing the function of cure, but 
afterwards as cure of Mobile. In 1722, the Western Company, 
whose charter of 1717 pledged it to build churches and care 
for the religious instruction of the people, free and slave, by 
agreement with De Mornay divided the j^rovince into three 
districts. The Illinois (including afterwards to the Natchez) 
went to the Jesuits, New Orleans and west of the Mississippi 
to the Capuchins, and the Mobile district, extending from the 
Mississippi to the Perdido, from the Ohio to the Gulf, to the 
Barefoot Carmelites. Except Charles, who in the preceding 
year was among the Apalaches, no Carmelites came to this 
district, and it is said that therefore Mobile, also, was then 
by St. Vallier given to the Capuchins.^ 

1 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 553. ^ Ibid., p. 564. 



128 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Dividing into districts was but a jjartial relief, and the great 
question still remained, should the country be a vicariate aj)os- 
tolic, dependent only on Rome, or a vicariate of Quebec? 
Mathieu, in 1722-23, signs himself as vicar apostolic, and he 
seems to have applied to Rome for the province, containing, as 
he said, fifteen missions. This, if granted, was but temporary. 
Indeed, when St. Vallier created a regular line of vicars-gen- 
eral, he seldom selected CajDuchins, and so, too, under Bishop 
Pontbriand the position of vicar-general was usually held by 
Jesuits, despite the outcry and opposition, of the Capuchins. 
For on February 20, 1726, the Company made a treaty with 
the Jesuits for their services in the Mississippi valley, includ- 
ing also the Chickasaws, Alibamons, and Choctaws.^ 

Beaubois was the earliest vicar-general, perhaps, — a man 
to be famous as the founder not only of the Jesuit mission 
in Louisiana, but also in 1727 of the useful and long-lived 
Ursuline convent at New Orleans. Mathias, it is true, was 
vicar -general afterwards, but from 1739 it was Pierre YItry, and 
from 1757 Michael Baudouin, both Jesuits again. Baudouin 
had previously labored eighteen years on the Choctaw mission. 

After the removal of the capital to New Orleans, the more 
rapid growth was transferred from Mobile, but its cure had to 
make visitations over considerable territory. There was gen- 
erally a missionary to the Christian Apalaches, but outside of 
that the parish of Mobile was a large one. We find the Mobile 
cure often at Dauphine Island, and sometimes at Pascagoula 
and among the Choctaws. In 1728, even the Apalaches of St. 
Louis are mentioned with Pascagoula and Dauphine Island as 
dependent on the Mobile parish. 

On January 20, 1720, the directors -general of the Com- 
pany of the Indies supplied a book of forty-eight pages for a 
register. Up to page twelve was to be for baptisms, then to 
twenty-six for marriages, and the remainder for deaths. This 
division, however, was not observed. Baptisms and deaths are 
in separate books, while there is no regular record of marriages, 
although many are found in the baptismal register. 

The earlier church registers had been kept without special 
rules by the parish priests. There was a long ordinance of 

^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 582 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 
261. 



FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 129 

1667 bearing on the subject, but it does not seem to have been 
at first regarded in Louisiana. On January 21, 1726, Fleu- 
riau at New Orleans delivered to Mathias a blank register 
for baptisms, marriages, and burials, containing ninety pages, 
numbered and initialed, and prefixed is an extract from that 
ordinance. Fleuriau signs as Royal Councillor and Attorney- 
General to the Superior Council of the province.^ 

The ordinance directs that two registers be issued each year, 
paged and initialed (cotte et ■para'phe) by the royal judge of 
the place, the one to serve as a minute-book to be preserved by 
the cure or vicar, the other to be delivered when filled to the 
greffier juge royal as an engrossed record. The church shall 
pay for both. 

In baptismal entries shall be mentioned the day of birth and 
names of child, father and mother, and sponsors (paraiii et 
maraine). In those of marriages there shall be given the 
name, age, quality, and residence of each of the bridal couple, 
if of family, and four witnesses, who shall declare whether they 
are relatives, and if so on what side and of what degree. In 
burials shall be mentioned the day of death, and there shall 
sign two of the nearest relatives or friends who assist in the 
procession (convoy). If any one cannot write, he shall so 
declare. The priest shall ask this question and make mention 
of the fact. All entries shall be in one register according to 
date, without blanks. 

Six weeks after the end of the year, the priest must take or 
send both books, signed and certified as correct (veritable), to 
the royal clerk and judge who issued them, who must receive 
them, noting the date. He shall give a receipt after compar- 
ing the minute or blotter and the engrossed copy. The clerk 
shall cross out all blanks in both, without charge. The minute- 
book is to remain with the cure or vicar, and the copy shall be 
preserved by the clerk for reference. 

This entry is signed by Fleuriau, and also what seems to be 
Delarivi^re Flamont. 

How far the regulation as to original and copy was carried 
out we do not know, but it is certain the minute-book was left 
with the parish priest. The books ever since in the custody 

1 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 293, gives the name as Fleuriau, but he writes 
it more like Fleuviau. 



130 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

of the church at Mobile are evidently originals. But it is also 
certain the books were not annually issued, for each one of the 
volumes covers several years. 

It is in the time of Mathieu that we find the first records 
of abjuration of heresy. We learn only that on November 
14, 1722, he received the abjuration of heresy of Magdelaine 
Moyennant, native of the vicinity of Geneva. The lady could 
not write, but five witnesses attest her mark. On the 23d of 
the next month, Monsieur Jean Baptiste de Roy likewise 
acknowledged the error of his way, and seven witnesses seal 
his abjuration. Among them are Carriere, De Beauchamps, 
and Durand, so that it was evidently a matter of uncommon 
importance. 

During a short period succeeding 1723, we find several 
priests named at Mobile. In that year it is Brother Claude, 
also Capuchin, and in March, 1725, Reverend Father Beau- 
bois, Jesuit, superior of the Illinois, officiates, possibly during 
some temporary absence of Claude. In February, 1726, we 
find an entry by Brother Raphael de Luxembourg, as vicar- 
general of Monseigneur of Quebec. This was probably a visi- 
tation from New Orleans, for a few days later we see the 
Caj)uchin Mathias de Fidau (Sedan?) signing as cure. He was 
to retain the position for some time. 

Mathias was, in virtue of powers from the Bishop of Quebec, 
to receive an abjuration on September 8, 1727. Edward 
Hurcksall of the English province of Quainte (Kent?) made 
profession of faith in the religion of the Catholic Apostolic 
Roman Church and publicly abandoned his former Protestant 
heresy, with the prescribed ceremonies, in the presence, amongst 
others, of the Jesuit Petit and of Monsieur Diron, chevalier 
of the order of St. Louis, colonel of infantry, and commandant 
of Fort Conde, — himself apparently of the Reformed (rf/brwe) 
faith. This last may seem somewhat strange in view of the 
fact that Bienville's Black Code of 1724 had prohibited all 
worship but the Catholic ; but even this code had not gone the 
length of banishing Protestants as it did the Jews. No doubt 
a Protestant could remain, if he did not worship in public. 

The next year we find the first mention of a churchwarden 
(mm'guelier). It was then Robert Talon, master cabinet-maker, 
the first Creole of the colony, as we learn at his death in 1745. 



FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 131 

The office is to be mentioned at intervals from tliat time down 
to the present time. In 1737, for instance, it was M. Prevot, 
and three years later Charles Marie Delalande, the well-known 
garde tnagasin. By 1755 there were several, as Antoine 
Colon is then noted as first marguilUer. 

Mathias, like all the cures, was to be absent occasionally 
on different missions, and others then took his place. Thus 
we find Brother Victorin Dupui, a Recollect, in 1730, and at 
other times, Pierre Vitry, the Jesuit, in 1732, and on another 
occasion the Jesuit Petit. Victorin was at that time mission- 
ary to the Apalaches near Mobile, and easily accessible for such 

calls. 

In 1732 we begin another book, prepared by paging and 
initialing for the use of the cure. This one was of fifty-eight 
pages, and to be limited to baptisms, contrary to the ordinance 
above quoted. The official who had thus cotte et paraplie, 
was De Cremont, ordinary commissary of the marine, second 
councillor of the Superior Council of Louisiana, and first judge 
of Fort Conde of Mobile. 

Two years later, we have record of Mathieu's supplying the 
ceremonies of baptism to a daughter of Sieur Noel de Prououd 
of Mobile River. She had only been ondoyee by Victorin, on 
account of lack of sacred oil. 

It is in 1734 that Mathias signs himself as vicar-general 
of Monseigneur of Quebec, a position which this Capuchin 
held for five years. It occurs first during a visitation of the 
coasts of the Bay of Mobile. He continued to perform the 
functions of cure at Mobile, however, through April 5, 1734, 
when, after a break of about a month and a half, the Capuchin 
Jean Francois begins his ministry. 

In November, during some absence of Cure Jean Fran9ois, 
we find an entry by Brother Guillaume Morand, Jesuit, as 
apostolic missionary. We shall see him again at Fort Toulouse 
as his regular post. A year later, Mathias as vicar-general 
acts again, and then Prosper and Felix sign each as cure at 
Fort Conde within ten days of each other. From December, 
1737, to the middle of the next March, Felix acted as cure, 
and in April conies Brother Agnan, with a curious hand. 
From August begins Brother Amand, a Capuchin, regularly. 
Is this fluctuation of pastors a reflection on the religious side 



132 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

of the uncertainty on the civil due to the fatal Chickasaw 
expedition ? 

Aniand was cure until 1742, and it was during his adminis- 
tration the entries are made in 1741 that the church, never 
having been dedicated and being completely rebuilt (toute a 
neuve), received the benediction the day of the nativity of the 
Holy Virgin. On that account he dedicated it to the Holy 
Virgin by special commission sent him by Reverend Father 
Pierre, Capuchin, then vicar -general of Monseigneur of Que- 
bec, who ordained that the anniversary- should be celebrated 
every year. From that time the church is known as Notre 
Dame de la Mobile. 

Jean Franc^ois was cure of the Apalaches, and occasionally 
acted for Amand, and on December 23, 1743, he succeeds 
Amand as cure. Occasionally we have entries by Prosper, 
missionary of the Apalaches, and Seraphim, who even signs as 
cure quite frequently in 1744, but Jean Frangois acts oftenest. 

In 1744 begins another register, this time of forty-four pages 
and for baptisms alone, of the parish of Notre Dame de la 
Mobile. It is numbered, and each page initialed, with many 
flourishes, by Bobe Descloseaux, commissary ^ and controller 
of the marine, exercising the function of judge at Mobile. 
This book was to outlast the French regime. The companion 
death register was issued by Descloseaux in 1754, and its forty- 
eight pages were to suffice even through 1803. 

During the time 1748-52 we have Brother Pierre as cure, 
but Jean Francois as missionary acts almost as often. It is 
difficult to say which was the real cure. From then on for 
two years we find Hilaire, Barnab^, and Sebastien alternating. 
In 1754-55, we have Maximin and sometimes Barnabe, but 
usually Jean Fran(^ois acts as cure, until, in 1756, the Capuchin 
Ferdinand begins. The indifferent but characteristic hand- 
writing of this cur^ outlasts the French period, becoming grad- 
ually more uncertain and feeble. Occasionally Jean Francois 
comes, as at the baptism of negroes of the mission in 1760, 
and the Capuchin Valentin, missionary apostolic, two years 
later; but Ferdinand is the parish priest. He holds the posi- 
tion perhaps longer than any of his predecessors, acting even 

^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 333, seems only to know of him as commissaire 
ordonateur from Auberville's death in 1758. 



FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 133 

under the English, and to his entries we owe much of our 
knowledge of his times. 

The church was southwest of the fort, near our St. Emanuel 
and Theatre streets. There these priests said mass, baptized 
children and slaves, married the living, and buried the dead 
with the imposing ritual of their church, forgetting their 
French home and earthly ambition in ministry to the people of 
this far-away American parish. 



CHAPTER XVIII. ^ 

THE CITY MAP OF 1760. 

In 1760, one Phelypeaux made a plan c£ Mobile whicli has 
outlasted the several flags that have floated over its resting- 
place. It gives a clear idea of what the town had been for 
years before, — for we know it did not grow much after Vau- 
dreuil succeeded Bienville in 1748, nor after Vaudreuil was, in 
1753, promoted to be governor of Canada, and Kerlerec, captain 
in the royal navy,^ succeeded him in Louisiana. Of Phely- 
peaux we know nothing except that this was the family name 
of the Pontchartrains. 

The plan is headed, "Veritable plan de la Mobille; Tons 
les Batimens; Marque de rouge appartienne au Roy; ou les 
occupe; fait a la Mobille le 20 8bre 1760 — Phelypeaux." 

The general identity with the plan of 1711 is evident, but 
the fort, marked as "Fort Conde de la Mobille," is drawn back 
more from the river and has a wharf in front to deep water. 
Around it is an open "Esplanade." There are, in two rows, 
six blocks south of it instead of eight, the two west of thejfort 
are split through in an irregular way to provide for a red cross, 
evidently the church, and "Terrein conserve Pour leglise;" 
while the blocks north have grown from two rows of four each 
to three rows of six blocks each, there being now a third row 
pretty much in continuation of the one furthest west behind 
the fort. In front of all runs a "Quay," bordering a marshy 
shore. The land to the south is marked as high, that to the 
north as low. Before, the streets bore no names, and there is 
but one exception now. Our Conti west of St. Emanuel is 
"Rue de Tournee." 

The hospital square we find at the extreme north end of the 
town, the bviildings at about the northwest corner of our St. 
Louis and Royal, perhaps the site of the old English house 
1 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 324. 



Ve/ritaHe 
Tows les F 
de Yottt^i 
on les oce 




plan <<« la ^flobiHe ; 
atl'me-nts ; ^a^quo 
a'^^ ^i ttej« Trte ail J^oy 
tfei fait a (a vAto\»»Ht//» *«t— 




~ — — 


. — -^_ 







— ~— ' 




^A^..,... 


^- 


/U 





:*«^ 



THE CITY MAP OF 1760. 135 

formerly on a high lot next to the Electric Lighting Company. 
This ridge ran along the west side of Royal Street, and no 
doubt determined the location of the city. On this, overlook- 
ing the mud flats of the river, the houses were built. In 
the same square with the "hopital" we find "Mr. Grondel," 
but no line of demarcation for individual ownership from the 
red buildings, which indicate the king's. Under the Brit- 
ish regime we shall find that Mme. Grondel was the acknow- 
ledged owner of the hospital house and grounds. This tends 
to show that it was not the daring cavalier's wife, as they lived 
abroad from 1758. The half block next south is indicated by 
a red dotted line as the king's, and in red there is a long build- 
ing on St. Louis and a thicker one on Royal (besides three 
small outbuildings), marked as "Magasin du Roy." West of 
them is "Mde. Socier" (Madame Socier, rather than M. de 
Socier, as Monsieur is abbreviated "Mr."), and under the next 
government we shall see she claimed to own the site. This 
was a magazine for provisions, and was built in part of brick, 
covered without by planks, and shingled. At one end was a 
mill for "the shelling of rice," with necessary appurtenances. 

The three blocks from St. Francis Street south to the fort 
moat corners are inclosed by a yellow dotted line, marked 
"Enceinte de pallisade," running through the centre of St. 
Francis, St. Joseph, and Royal streets. There, then, was 
Vaudreuil's palisade of 1748, inclosing principally royal prop- 
erty, — the " Gouvernement " (civil officials) on the north side 
of Dauphin, extending from Royal to St. Joseph; the "commis- 
sariat," seemingly without buildings, on the north side of 
Conti, extending west from Royal Street; and what are clearly 
barracks, occupying almost all the square from Conti to Gov- 
ernment streets, and from Royal to St. Emanuel. This com- 
missariat was, like the hospital grounds, laid off in walks and 
probably trees. The map gives no indication of the ownership 
by the De Lussers of the street corner of the commissariat 
under the recent grant. The palisade seems to have several 
gates, one on Royal Street at St. Francis, two at the intersec- 
tion of Dauphin with St. Joseph and Royal, respectively, and 
one on the Quay, at what is now Royal and Government. The 
hospital and warehouse were too far off to be inclosed. 

In each of the three palisaded squares were some private 



136 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

houses, — the southwest quarter of the barracks block, for in- 
stance, being marked "Mr. Pechon." Of him we know little, 
and indeed in the record history of this interesting lot at • the 
northeast corner of Government and St. Emanuel we do not 
find his name. It had been granted by the French govern- 
ment to Grondel April 19, 1757, the year before he left, and 
after the English occupation it was the residence of Major 
Farmer. 1 Behind Pechon 's two houses, with its end on St. 
Emanuel, is a royal building facing the south side of Conti. 
A fair conjecture is that it was the bakery of the king, which 
existed somewhere in this square. Indeed, there were two, 
of brick with shingled roof, one having two ovens, and another, 
new, with four. This corner we knew was the site of the 
"Bakehouse" of Spanish times. The barracks of this square 
were in a quadrangle open to the south. They were glazed 
and for officers. 

Possibly the most curious thing about the map is the Rue de 
Tournee (our Conti), which is very irregular, and, just west of 
what we call St. Emanuel, widens and then as suddenly is 
contracted by a house in red, which with a smaller one is 
marked "haugard," "sovager." The words "gard" and "tour- 
nee " may have some connection with circuit of the watch, or 
a guard-house, but it cannot be doubted that "sovager" has 
some reference to the place in which were held the Indian con- 
gresses. Here in British times was the "Indian House," and 
we shall see that there was nothing new then built. So that 
it may be supposed in this house and open place was held that 
congress, for example, in December, six years before Phely- 
peaux's map, when the pleased savages voted Kerlerec "Father 
of the Choctaws."^ 

There is no indication of the recent grant to Mme. De Lus- 
ser of the lots on Eoyal and Conti, nor of the De Lusser 
Tract, which ran west from south of the fort. Taking the 
town as a whole, we count one hundred and thirty-one houses 
outside the fort, of which twenty-three pertain in one way or 
another to the government. Some, no doubt, are shops, and 
others so small that one conjectures them to be some kind of 

1 3 American State Papers, p. 398 ; Hallett v. Eslava, 3 St. & P. (Ala.) 
pp. 105, 108. 

2 2 Gayarrd's History of Louisiana, p. 78. 



THE CITY MAP OF 1760. 137 

outbuildings. But even then there would be perhaps seventy- 
five dwellino-s. If the family should average four persons, that 
would mean a population, in 1760, of three hundred, outside the 
fort. Most were to the north, there being but thirty-five 
houses south of the fort, and these all in the eastern tier of 

blocks. 

The town had thus already built up north of the fort to the 
neo-lect of the lower land below it, a tendency still seen in the 
fact that the business part of the city, the handsome buildings 
of old times, all lie north of Church Street. The slight curve 
to the southwest now shown in all north and south streets at 
some i^oint from Church to Canal is seen on this map, and 
must have been true in 1711, although not on that plan. For 
it is due to a bend in the river in front of the fort. 

The square fort — Fort Conde de la Mobile — is shown on 
this plan in full Vauban splendor, as detailed by Dumont.i 
From tip to tip of the bastions is fifty toises, three hundred 
feet, while it will be remembered the original palisade fort of 
1711 was ninety toises, five hundred and forty feet square. 
The brick fort of 1717 thus contained less than one third the 
superficial area of the wooden one; indeed, from point to point 
of the glacis was ninety toises, and so the whole new works, 
glacis and all, were within the lines of the palisade Fort Louis. 

No explanation is attached, but a soldier has no difficulty in 
determining the use of the structures given. There was access 
slantwise the glacis on each side to the brick-faced covered 
way, on the east it being from the wharf and on the north 
from the palisaded inclosure ; but entrance into the fort proper 
was only from the north. This would be to the west of the 
rear of the present court-house, for the still existing founda- 
tions mark the location of the fort. Its interior was pretty 
much within tlie lines of the block bounded by Church, Royal, 
Theatre, and St. Emanuel, although the east bastions extended 
across Royal, and the west ones across Church and Theatre just 
east of St. Emanuel. 

Crossing the moat (about where Mrs. Voorhees so long had 

in our day a boarding-house), one entered through the brick 

scarp wall. This wall was about sixteen feet from the bottom 

to the cordon, above which rose a thin brick parapet four and 

1 Dumont's Memoires, p. 40 (5 French's Historical Collection). 



138 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

a half feet high. In the curtains of three fronts at least were 
brick casemates for cannon. Passing between two buildings, 
one of which was the officers' quarters and one the station of 
the guard, the visitor came to an open square, probably with 
staff in the centre floating the lilies of France, — the yard now 
of the city street department. On the east and west of this 
parade were two long one-story barracks for about two hundred 
and sixteen men, but the warehouse of Dumont's time was 
now up town. On the south side of the parade were two 
wells. Walking by the bristling cannon standing upon wooden 
platforms, one would notice at the northwestern and southeast- 
ern corners entrances to two subterranean rooms in these bas- 
tions. The first was a brick bakehouse and the other the 
powder magazine, while at the northeast corner was some out- 
house on Royal Street, near the present Armory. From the 
eastern parapet one would look out on the single wharf of the 
city, narrow in part across the miry bank of the river, but 
wider towards the eastern end. Where it reached the river 
(near the present Water Street) were boats at anchor, a hun- 
dred yards from the fort but under its guns. From the ram- 
parts on the other sides lay in full view the bark or tiled houses 
of Mobile. 1 

Such was Fort Conde in 1760, such the city it guarded. 

^ The description of the public buildings has been drawn in part from a 
report on their condition made up shortly after the British occupation in 
1763. Everything was then in want of repair, but the arrangement under 
the French had not been changed. This report is in the Haldimajid Papers. 

The plan was made in 1760, and in one corner Carlos Trudeau, the Span- 
ish surveyor, has written, " Piano que je ha hallado en la tomada de la 
Mobila, 4 Mayo, 1780," — plan found at the capture of Mobile, May 4, 
1780. What next became of it no one knows, except that it is now in the 
Department of the Interior, bearing the signature of United iStates Sur- 
veyor-General Freeman, and that in 1842 it was referred to in the case of 
Watkins v. Holman, 16 Peters Rep. pp. 30, 52 ; but no copy was actually 
made a part of that record. On the first organization of Mobile under the 
Americans, attempts were made by the local authorities to find the plan 
of the city. Money was sent to New Orleans on the report that a notary 
had it there, and then to Pensacola, but in vain. This map was afterwards 
found in New Orleans, and apparently purchased by the United States 
authorities for .$500, in order to lay off the fort property for sale. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 

Few grants and deeds have come down to us, and of these 
the earliest preserved in full was a grant by Cadillac, in 1715, 
on Dauphine Island; but, although the actual grant has per- 
ished, we have a pretty full history of an earlier concession, 
possibly made at the first Fort Louis. This was of what we 
know as Mon Louis Island, practically the mainland opposite 
Dauphine Island. There is then a gap until 1733, when come 
for some years a number of grants and town-lot deeds. At 
the end of the French regime we have papers which are rather 
certificates of long occupancy and ratification of claims than 
original grants themselves. 

Major Farmer of the British army was to claim that he had 
difficulty in preventing the removal of the records by the 
French, and from the few French ones now in the Mobile 
Probate Court it would seem that other custodians have been 
even less successful. In point of fact, some few have been 
found in the Haldimand Papers, and so were removed by the 
British themselves. 

The books of Translated Records at Mobile are the more 
accessible, but the original papers in the cypress boxes in the 
same Probate Court are the more interesting. Neatly packed 
away by dates, with wide margins made by creases, bearing 
the signatures of a])]dicants and the French officials, and seals 
of state, these bundles of original documents have survived 
war and fire and revolutions of empire even until now. 

Mon Louis Island comes first in date. Nicholas Baudin, 
the Sieur de Miragouine, we know lived at Grosse Pointe, 
near the centre of the east coast, and from this the whole 
island was at first called. The grant is the earliest we have, 
and bears date November 12, 1710, at Fort Louis. 

Bienville as the kmjj's lieutenant and D'Artasfuette as com- 



140 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

missary of the marine made the cession, but, for some reason, 
it was thought proper to obtain Cadillac's ratification Septem- 
ber 15, 1713. The paj)ers were duly deposited later in the 
archives of the Suj)erior Council, and were to survive at least 
until 1783. 

This property was of more importance when Dauphine Island 
was the port of Mobile than after that harbor was j^ractically 
abandoned. It may be that to this fact it is due that the Bau- 
dins never alienated the property. It- was to remain theirs 
under the English and Spanish regimes, and be finally con- 
firmed by the United States to the descendants of the Sieur de 
Miragouine in 1829.^ 

The concession of land on Dauphine Island to Joseph Simon 
de la Pointe, whose name occurs often in the church registers 
as father of Mme. Krebs, was made November 12, 1715, by 
Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, governor of the province of 
Louisiana, and Jean Baptiste Duclos, royal councillor and 
marine commissary. They certify that they are vested by his 
Majesty the king, their lord, with the power to grant lands. 
It recites La Pointe 's application, and was executed on Dau- 
phine Island, and registered, as ordered, the same day by 
greffier en chef Raguet in the office of the Supreme Council 
of Louisiana, — which would indicate that this office was at 
the time also on Dauphine Island. The description hardly 
admits of modern identification. The line seems to run 
north and south a league, the land bounded south on Fish 
River, and has a west front of a league on the sea, facing the 
Grand Bay {faisant face a la grande Baye). The island now 
is not a league wide, nor could it ever have given a west front, 
at any point, of three miles. The widest part is at the east 
end, and at this time much of that was taken up by the fort 
and settlement, and there is no Fish or other river on the island. 
The proper description should probably call for a north bound- 
ary of a league, with similar south line, but the original grant, 
which has survived, reads as the translation. 

The grant was for the purpose of enabling La Pointe to 
raise cattle, and was careful to except a cedar grove said to be 
near Fish River. The title was to be absolute, provided he 
cultivated the land for two successive years, but was subject 

1 5 American State Papers, p. 130 ; 4 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 358. 



w 



i:.,,^.^r-c/ :-\^)u^ %/^^^.- 






.^ejL^^t- (fA<-'-^^-^\ 



ll C/niJt^lSi-l ' I] 



'/ 



-; l<'^/< V,;,' ,<J( 




04J c:<- jurtft- , ■ 



CADILLAC'S DAUPHINE ISLAND GRANT 



IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 141 

not only to possible royal dues, but also to furnish timber for 
forts, repair of ships, and other public works, and the land 
could be taken for erecting fortifications. These conditions 
were common in all the grants, and but a proper instance of 
the right of eminent domain. 

Quite different the private deeds. These were not papers 
signed by one party and delivered to the other, as with the 
Spaniards later and now too with us. The procedure was for 
both parties to go before a notary, and he certifies their appear- 
ance, and that the one declares the sale to the other for so 
many livres, paid before him, of a certain described piece of 
land, and that the other party declares his acceptance of the 
property. All sign, perhaps with witnesses, in the notary's 
office, and he annexes his signature, but all without seal. If 
necessary, the notary, according to ordinance, explains the 
transaction and the party makes a cross for his mark. The 
original deed is then deposited with the register, the parties 
receiving copies. 

It was two years before Bienville's fatal Chickasaw expedi- 
tion that James Philip Emard, May 23, 1734, exchanged his 
house and lot in the city for that of Thomas Asseline Fleury, 
and agreed to pay ten livres additional to Pierre Regnault on 
account of his vendor's claim, Fleury paid Regnault, two 
weeks later, one hundred and forty livres, the remainder of the 
purchase-money Emard had owed Regnault. Both transactions 
were before E. Dubourdieu, the royal notary at Fort Conde, 
— a frequent unofficial witness in the church records, as we 
remember. 

These two houses cannot be identified, for, j)rovokingly 
enough, the deeds never name the streets, but give other pri- 
vate places as boundaries. For instance, Emard's house thus 
sold to Fleury was opposite that sold by Verneuil to Robert, 
the master tailor, and adjoining De Terrepuy's house and 
Margaret Belzaguy's vacant lot; but where were these? And 
the house Fleury sells is no better described, for it is merely 
said to be the one which he purchased of Jean Sarry. 

Sixteen months later, after the Chickasaw expedition, we 
find Fleury selling this place for two hundred and fifty livres 
to Jean Girard de St. Jean and his wife Marraret Benoit be- 
fore the notary De Flandre. The description gives the lot as 



142 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

twelve and a half toises wide by twenty-five deep, bounded 
on one side by a lot of grantor, and on the other by one of 
Jean Belzaguy, deceased, and fronting the house of the widow 
Verneuil, while to the rear are the woods. 

De Terrepuy's lot next to this of De Fleury's had been 
acquired by him at the auction of the property of Sergeant 
Beauvais, and we find him selling it at two hundred livres 
on July 6, before the same notary, to Girard, pilot of the 
Alibamons, — no doubt the same man who bought from De 
Fleury. The description is equally vague, and we learn only 
that the lot was between the houses of Hamond and De Fleury. 
In what part of the town was this activity in real estate we do 
not know. 

There were many grants in French times, of course, which 
cannot now be traced. Some were abandoned, but many, espe- 
cially in the city, continued in uninterrupted possession of 
descendants or sub-grantees whose preserved deeds were not to 
antedate the Spanish domination. In the American State 
Papers we find Kerlerec's grant to Pechon of five thousand 
arpens on Mobile River, that of Bienville and Salmon, in 1737, 
of the five thousand and forty arpen island in Tensaw River to 
Margaret De Lusser, which had been abandoned by the Tensaw 
Indians. Corresponding is a tract on the mainland, to be 
certified by De Velle as property of Mme. De Lusser, granted 
her May 27, 1738, by Governor Bienville and Commissaire 
Ordonnateur Salmon. This had one league front on Tensaw 
River by sixty arpens depth, bounded north and south by 
creeks, about a league and a half above the Apalache Indians. 

Many others were to be disapproved for one reason or other 
by the United States authorities, but among those which were 
to stand the test of time was the St. Louis Tract near Mobile. 
This is probably where the Apalaches had been located, and is 
that extensive and important region between Three Mile Creek 
and Chickasabogue. The last stream was called, under the 
French, the St. Louis River, possibly in connection with the 
Apalache parish of that name. It embraced about 22,500 
arpens, and was granted to M. Diron November 7, 1733, by 
Bienville and Salmon. ^ After Diron left, we find it, before 
1746, in possession of Charles Maria de Lalande, for Lalande 
1 5 American State Papers, p. 130. 



IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 143 

and wife In that year conveyed it to Joseph Barbeau de Bois- 
dore, whose heirs, in 1759, sold it to De Bonville (Bonnille?). 
One of D'Abbadie's certificates of 1763 recognizes the own- 
ership of this, under the name of St. Louis plantation, by 
Bonville. From Bonville it was to pass to the De Lvxssers, in 
1807 to J. B. Laurendine, and then in the same year to Joseph 
Chastang, in whose representatives it was confirmed finally by 
the United States. It was, in Laurendine's deed, described as 
being one hundred and fifty arjjens square. 

To Bienville's grant to D'Artaguette, then, in his third 
administration, do we owe the origin of that great tract extend- 
ing from Bayou Chateaugue to Boguehoma and Chickasabogue, 
from west of Whistler and Toulminville to Mobile River, now 
the seat of so many railroads, mills, and industries. 

De Velle was later to certify to another important grant to 
Mme. De Lusser, — who turns out to be his mother-in-law. 
This was what is now called the De Lusser Tract, the earliest 
of the extensive concessions outside old Latin Mobile which 
were to figure so much in the present larger city. 

This tract now extends from about the northeast corner of 
our St. Emanuel and Eslava out to a little across Broad Street 
just south of Dauphin Street. At the time of the concession, 
only the front, two arpens and four toises wide, was of any 
consequence. The town did not stretch further west than Con- 
ception Street, and it is doubtful if any one knew or cared 
where the twenty-five arpens depth would come out. It faced, 
on the east, other lands of Mme. De Lusser and De Bonnille, 
touching on the one side (north) property of De Morzier, and 
bounded on the other (south) by the pine forest. This land 
(terraifi) Mme. De Lusser cleared in 1748, and when De Velle 
wrote, in 1763, it was serving to lodge her slaves, for whom 
she had built cabins. She could not have cleared much except 
the front of this eighty acre tract. 

Of Morzier's land we know nothing, and his title cuts no 
figure afterwards. The lot opposite, however, had in later 
years quite an eventful history. We next find both De Lusser 
pieces in possession of Captain Jean Baptlste De Lusser, and 
how it gets from her to him is one of the puzzles of the record 
office. 

Town -lots are recited to have been granted her by Governor 



144 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Kerlerec in 1757, also. They were two in number, making 
up a tract twenty-five toises square at the northwest corner of 
Eoyal and Conti, and consequently part of the commissariat 
property we find on Phelypeaux's plan of 1760. 

Among the Haldimand Papers in the British Museum are 
preserved several deeds which passed to that British governor 
at Mobile in 1768. These give us the story of another piece 
of property from 1749 down. 

We thus learn that Alexis Cartier was once the owner of 
a lot twelve and a half by twenty -five toiseS^ and sold it, March 
29, 1749, to Louis Flandrin. He in his turn, on May 15, 
1756, sold it to Joseph Barbaud de Boisdore. Flandrin's 
wife was Marie Louise Dinant, and all the parties were resi- 
dents. The lot had on it a house built of posts {pottecmx) and 
earth, roofed with bark. The place was contiguous on the one 
side to royal land occupied by M. Aubert, aide major, making 
the corner of "la Rue Coucy" (Conty?), and at the back {s^lr 
le dernier) adjoining the j^roperty of Widow Barthelemy. The 
consideration was not money, but fifteen cows and calves, one 
pair of oxen of three years, and a bull itoreau) of two years 
and a half, the whole to be delivered in two instalhnents at the 
purchaser's St. Louis residence, — for, as we saw above, Bois- 
dore then owned the St. Louis Tract. All the purchaser's 
property is, as usual, mortgaged as security. Flandrin signs, 
with Joseph Chastang and Jean Boccard as witnesses, but 
Boisdore could not write. 

March 31, 1759, Boisdore sold to Alen La Vergne, who 
likewise could not write, what is apparently the same property, 
situated at the corner of the square opposite to the commis- 
sary's office, for fifteen hundred livres, in the presence of J. B. 
Royot (Roujeot?)and Pierre Rochon. November 25, 1763, De 
Velle, former royal lieutenant, certifies to La Vergne 's owner- 
ship of the house at the corner of the block (^de) vis-a-vis the 
old commissariat. Subsequent British deeds, as we shall see, 
make the property face the river, but do not otherwise help 
locate it. 

The most reasonable interpretation of all this is that the lot 
was the southwest corner of Royal and Conti, and that, as the 
government had sold part of the commissariat to the De Lus- 
sers, it had also made the northeast part of the barracks square 



IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 145 

private property. Whether Cartier and Barthelemy were the 
original grantees or not, we do not know. 

Three papers of this time connected with the estate of Bar- 
thelemy Monclin, deceased, have survived at Mobile in copies 
authenticated by their later Spanish custodians, and throw a 
good deal of interesting light on French procedure. 

We learn that Monclin had been partner of Louis Flandrin, 
and that they owned the place once inhabited by Le Sueur up 
the river. The proceedings consist in an application, July 
22, 1756, by Guillaume Marcellin as substitute of the general 
administrator {prociireur aux hiens vacants), for the sale of the 
interest of the deceased. This was addressed to Bob^ Desclo- 
seaux, "Councillor of the King, Commissary of the Marine, 
Judge of the royal jurisdiction of Mobile." The petition was 
granted. The notice (affiche) is headed "De Par le Eoy, Vente 
Judiciaire d'habitation," and says that the sale will be on 
three successive Sundays at the church door on the close of the 
mass service Qi Vi^sue de la messe). This notice is signed by 
Descloseaux and by Marcellin as clerk (greffier), and says that 
the purchaser must ]3ay cash, even if a creditor, and cannot 
receive possession until January, on account of the crop 
• (recolte). 

We are not told where the notices were posted, but the sale 
duly took place at the church door on the three successive 
Sundays. Descloseaux, accompanied by Francois Cesar Ber- 
noudy, substitute of the royal attorney-general, and the clerk 
Marcellin, had Ceringe the crier (hvissier} proclaim the sale 
in a loud voice, guaranteeing the title. A number of people 
assembled, and Olivier made the only bid, eight hundred livres, 
when the sale was adjourned. On the second Sunday, the sale 
starting with the eight hundred livres, Aubert bid nine hun- 
dred, and, there being no further bids, it went over. On the 
third Sunday the bidding was quite spirited and went up to 
2520 livres, at which price the property was adjudged to Flan- 
drin. Flandrin afterwards sold a half interest to Francois and 
Bernard Bernoudy, and, after Flandrin's death, one of them, 
in 1764, sells the half interest to Narbonne, who had married 
Flandrin's widow. This last sale was for four hundred piastres 
in hard Spanish money. "Robert Farmar" was one of the 
witnesses to this deed. 



146 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

The next regular deed we find is a conveyance October 16, 
1759, to soldier J. C. Mortall by J. B. Le Fleau as guardian 
of Francis and R^n^, minor children of the late Marie Anne 
D'Agneau, and executor of his father-in-law, our friend Jean 
Girard de St. Jean, formerly royal boatman. The property is 
probably not that heretofore described, although Marie Anne 
D'Agneau had herself bought it originally from Terrepuy and 
Fleury. The land in our deed of 1759 seems to be bounded 
north by a street, — the second mention of a street, but, alas, 
unnamed, — and on the south by a lot of Lacage, while on the 
other side is the lot of Mme. Poupart. The price is eight 
hundred livres, payable within three years, drawing ten per 
cent interest, due every six months, all in current money of 
this colony. Right of reentry is reserved in the deed on 
default of payment. A receipt and release by Le Fleau fol- 
lows, executed May 23, 1763, before the same notary Roujeot, 
acknowledging payment in all of 2340 livres in full satisfac- 
tion. There is some mistake in the figures, however, for how 
the purchase-money even at ten per cent for about three and 
a half years could nearly treble itself is not easy to see. De- 
cember 16, 1763, De Velle, ex-lieutenant at Mobile, and 
Director-General D'Abbadie, at New Orleans, were to certify to 
Mortalle's title to the property. 

Among grants dating from French times may also be men- 
tioned that of fifteen thousand arpens on Mobile River above 
Chickasabogue, granted in July, 1760, which under the Ameri- 
cans was to be confirmed to the extent of 5760 acres to Samuel 
Acre, who claimed it under Benjamin Dubroca. The original 
grantee of the tract is not known. The papers were much 
mutilated. 1 This grant extends from Chickasabogue north 
to Bayou Sara, and from a little east of the M. & B. Rail- 
road to Mobile River. 

The next document recorded is a copy of a translation of 
a petition by the Chevalier Montaut de Monberault, January 3, 
1763, for confirmation of his possession of a tract of land one 
league and a half up Fowl River in the cul-de-sac or turn 
called Lisloy (Goose Island), where he lived. The dimensions 
are not given, and indeed the description is confusing, as it is 
next said to take "its boundaries towards the sea from the 
1 5 American State Papers, p. 594. 



IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 147 

River Barreau sometimes called by the name of River Laba- 
terie, and on the other side ascending the river until the said 
boundary reaches its spring or source." This is all quite un- 
certain, but would seem to point to a place between the head- 
waters of Bayou Labaterie and Fowl River. The northwest 
confluent of Fowl River is still sometimes called " Isle aux Oies 
River," and Lisloy is Bull Island. The land, he says, is 
swampy and uninhabitable on account of the great number of 
marshy rivulets called Bois Bleux. This must be a mistake, 
as bois bleu is the titi-tree, which prefers low lands. Monbe- 
rault wanted it for his business of cattle-breeding. He had pur- 
chased it from Mr. Petit, who got it from Mr. Dauriscourt, and 
he in turn from a man named Lalime, the first settler, but 
none of them had a title from the government. Wherefore, 
says Monberault, "your petitioner finds himself in the same 
situation with the greater part of the inhabitants of this part 
of the country, who, in fact, have no other titles to the lands 
which they occupy than the very incomplete and insufficient 
right which arises from possession." 

The governor, Louis de Kerlerec, chevalier of the royal 
and military order of St. Louis, captain of the king's ships, 
and Denis Nicholas Foucault, acting as co7nmissaire ordo7ina- 
teur of the province, considered this memorial, and on March 
11, 1763, at New Orleans, granted the tract to Monberault in 
fee simple, subject to the usual conditions, the same as set out 
in Cadillac's grant to La Pointe forty-eight years before. 

It cost nothing to enter public land in those days. There 
was, in fact, in the troubled days of the Seven Years' war, 
more land than colonists, and, as noted in several documents, 
it was the king's will that all his subjects should settle in the 
department of Mobile wherever they thought most convenient 
and proper. But the will of the weak and dissolute Louis 
XV. was on the wane in Louisiana, and in the latter part of 
1763 his representatives were busy giving certificates to take 
the place of grants which they could, after the Treaty of Paris, 
no longer make. 

Thus, on the fourth day of December, Pierre Annibal De 
Velle, chevalier of the royal and military order of St, Louis, 
ex-lieutenant of the king at Mobile, certifies that one Sanregret 
Baptiste has held for many years an improved lot in Mobile 



148 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

of twelve and a half toises front by twenty-five deep, adjoining 
that of Du Pont, who had lost his house by fire. Baptiste got 
the place from his wife, and she by inheritance from Joseph 
Sabatier, who acquired it originally by grant from Commissaire 
Ordonnateur De Cremont. D'Abbadie as royal director-gen- 
eral at New Orleans, thereupon, on the same day, certifies that 
the lot is the property of Baptiste, causes his seal at arms to be 
affixed, and the paper to be countersigned by his secretary at 
Mobile, Duverg^. This was the usual course, and, as De 
Velle's certificate at Mobile and that of D'Abbadie at New 
Orleans always bear the same date, it would seem that it was 
all done at Mobile at one time. Secretary Duvergd may have 
had this seal by him there which he attests as "By Monseigneur's 
command." 



CHAPTER XX. 

DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 

Massacre Island we have seen explored by Iberville on 
his first voyage. Later Sauvole made some examination, and 
it was on his report that Iberville, in 1701, sounded to the east 
and found a good harbor, made by the intersection of Pelican 
Island. It was large enough for thirty vessels. Commissary 
La Salle describes it as having twenty to twenty-one feet of 
water at its entrance. He said it was better than Pensacola, 
and one of the best ports on the coast. La Salle thought it 
should have a fort, and Iberville, during the removal from 
Biloxi, did build magazines for merchandise and barracks for 
soldiers there, ^ which were probably more than temporary 
structures. 

The port was always in use. There, and not in Mobile Bay 
proper, did the French vessels come, and, instead of directly 
sailing up to the river, ships all unloaded at the island, and 
cargoes were transferred to boats of smaller draught, like a 
traversier or a lighter, and taken up to town. It was indeed 
a dark time for Mobile, when, as sometimes happened, there 
was no regular communication with the island. On one such 
occasion, when the government finances were low, the officers 
of the garrison managed to buy a stray brigantine, which was 
put up for sale at Mobile, and thus reestablished intercourse 
with their port. Du Pratz rather poetically calls Mobile the 
birthplace of the colony and Dauphine Island its cradle, but 
he was strictly correct in declaring that the two really made up 
but one place. ^ 

By 1707, several families had moved there from Mobile, and 
we learn from the devout Penicaut that in this year Chateaugue 

^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 421, 425 ; 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 530, 
533. 

2 Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisiana, pp. 17, 49. 



150 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

rcseiied the survivors -of St. Maurice's ship St. Antoine, whose 
impious sailors had thrown a figure of that patron saint over- 
board into the sea. 

It was in 1709 that La Vigne Voisin, a captain from St. 
Malo, who some years later was to try to trade with the Span- 
iards, ohtainod ])ormission to improve the place, and to him, 
says Pcnicaut, was due its fort to defend the harbor and the very 
beautiful church (^fort belle egllse) facing the water, which 
attracted people even from near Mobile. This fort seems to 
have fallen into decay, or been ill located. At all events, 
L'Epinay was in 1717 to build another at half a gunshot from 
the sea.^ 

By 1710, all free persons from the ships settled on the island, 
and by two years later Cadillac found it necessary to build 
houses for the increasing j^opulation." About this time it was 
that, during the long war between England and France, a 
pirate ship from British Jamaica, in 1711, raided Dauphine 
Island and the crew ruthlessly destroyed everything possible. 
The loss was estimated at fifty thousand livres.^ Iluve was 
acting as priest at the time, and was himself all but killed.* 

This, however, was the only English attack, and the island 
soon recovered. The port of Mobile was there, in the harbor 
formed by Pelican Island and the east end of Dauphine, and 
the many ships made the place prosperous. Colonists dissat- 
isfied with the interior also drifted there, and the port now 
saw its palmiest days. When Cadillac was recalled, the chiefs 
of twenty-four Indian tribes went to Dauphine Island to wel- 
come his successor, L'Epinay. Among them, according to 
Pcnicaut, were the Chactas, Touachas, Apalaches, Tinssas, 
Mobiliens, Tomes, (jeyis dcs I^ourchcs (Naniabas?), Capinans, 
Colapissas, Bayogoulas, Oumas, Tonicas, Chaouachas, Natchez, 
Chicachas, Nassitoches, Yataces, Alibamons, and Canapouees. 
The calumet-smoking lasted two months, as they could not 
arrange to come all at one time. The governor received them 
well, and sent them away with presents.^ 

^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 482, 547 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 172. 

2 5 Marfi^ry, Decouvertes, pp. 485, 505. 

" 3 French's Historical Collection, p. 37 ; Pickett's Alabama, p. 208. 

* 1 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 553 ; G Frencli's Historical Col- 
lection, p. 104. 

* 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 547. 



DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 151 

The first church mention, for the Mobile priest visited it, 
seems to be the baptism on condition, in 1709, of a son of Jean 
Croix and Angelique Brouin his wife, inhabitants of Massacre. 
The second is when Le Maire next year at the island baptizes 
a number of people, when we learn that Bodin was a trader 
(marchand) there and that Roy was master cannoneer. Other 
names are mentioned also, besides slaves. Arnauld, Poudrier, 
L'Allemand, also a trader, and Grimauld seem to be among 
the inhabitants of Massacre, and D'Artaguette, commissary 
of the marine, at least had a slave who lived there. In 1715, 
as we saw, was the grant to La Pointe of a large cattle ranch 
on the island. 

There comes in the church notices an interval of several 
years following the ])irate attacik fiom Jamaica, broken only by 
the baptism, in 1717, of Marie Marguerite, daughter of Jean 
Colon and Marguerite Prau his wife, inhabitants of "Lisle 
Daufine." This was the fatal year in which the Peacock en- 
tered in twenty-seven feet of water and was barred in, having 
to unload and go out by the Grand Goziers in ten feet.^ Then 
again is a skip until 1721, when a daughter is baptized of the 
well-known soldier Pierre Danty and Marie Chatelier his wife, 
of Massacre, with the Alexandres as godparents. For Mathieu 
returns to the old name despite the change, in 1711, to Dau- 
phine, and like the others seldom uses the word "island." 

In 1719 came the Pensacola war, and it was in that year 
that occurred the Spanish counter-attack on Dauphine Island 
so vigorously resisted by Bienville and St. Denis with soldiers, 
savages, and concessionaires. The investment lasted twelve 
days, but the French were successful. ^ 

Possibly no more interesting paper has come down to us 
from French times than a "Veue de I'lsle Dauphine" shortly 
subsequent to 1717. 

In a clearing on the south side of the island rises from the 
beach the settlement, in two divisions. To the west, facing 
the open sea, high on the shores we see the bastioned, pali- 
saded fort, in whose barracks lodge the troops. About it are 
sundry one-story houses, of which one within a fence is the 
powder-house, and behind a little embankment by the water's 
edge are cannon to defend the outer harbor. 

^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 195. ^ 5 Margry, De'couvertes, p. 5G9. 













HlNfi] 






fl/Trt/) y/i, ' /, 
^ t I tTffrO I /' ' 



■'/''/ /■/,/// 



152 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Furtlior east, beyoiul the fatal l>ar wliioli in 1717 closed up 
the eutrauee and joined Spanish (^Peliean) island to Isle Dau- 
phine, is the town (bourg). This is on a little cove and over- 
looks the inner harbor, where ride, with full sail, the two- 
masted Paon and the Paix, under the mouths of cannon 
mounted on the strand. This settlement is a straight line of 
some eighteen houses, almost all one-story, and generally in 
square, picketed lots. The commandant's house is there, 
facing the cove, and has a sentry-box in front. Two long- 
houses are magasins of the company, and adjoining is the guard- 
house (corps de garde), while near the inner end of the line is 
the magaslii of the king. There is also a second but shorter 
row of buildings behind, among which is the house which serves 
for a church, — one of the few with two doors shown on this 
plan. It may be the gift of La Vigne Voisin. 

Across the island at the Shell Banks on the bay are still 
found shell cement walls, not unlike those of the Spaniards 
about St. Augustine, which some think the work of the French 
after storms had injured the other settlement. It may be there 
was a fort there once, but these particular walls are said by 
old residents to be part of the kilns of De Vauxberey in early 
American times. This high spot commands a fine view over 
the bay and Sound, and the Banks, crowned by cedars, must 
always have been prominent in the landscape and a favorite 
place of resort. The Shell Banks antedate the French, and 
from them are still dug Indian skeletons, ornaments, and uten- 
sils. ^ 

The closing of the port on the southern side of Dauphine by 
the shifting bar changed the history of the island, and of 
^lobile, too, but it had been anticipated by Iberville long 
before.^ In 1721 we read that several families left for New 
Biloxi. and the Neptune was loaded with stores and families 
for the ^Mississippi settlement.^ Officers, soldiers, and maga- 
zines went, too, and the impression has prevailed that the 
French completely abandoned the island. This is not true. 
Danville's map, dating not earlier than 173"2, shows the to^^^l, 
and it was there that Bienville and Chateauguc came, in 1724, 
to take passage on the Belloua for France, when the ship sud- 

^ So John Ladinier, now the oldest man on the island. 

- 4 Margry, Decouverte-t, p. 509. ^ o Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 571, 572. 



DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 153 

denly sank before their eyes. The church records also show 
the port in use. 

An entry, in 1722, by Mathieu shows Paul Le Sueur still 
commandant for the king in Dauphine Island, "ditte Massa- 
cre." This was made during a visitation of that place. In 
fact, a number of inhabitants and their slaves, too, are men- 
tioned from time to time. In 1727, for instance, we find Jean 
Arnauld, next year Mr. Renauld. Renauld is mentioned, 
curiously enough, as of Massacre in the Isle Dauphine, as if 
Massacre was the name of the town on the island. Arnauld 
occurs again in 1736 and 1742. We have the marriage of J. 
• B. Baudrau, a Creole of the island, besides mention of Nicolas 
Rousseau and wife, and the baptism by Mathias, vicar -general 
of Monseigneur de Quebec, of the daughter of Jacque Dupre, 
a Canadian inhabiting the "Baye de la Mobile." This proba- 
bly means the island, as the sj^onsor is J. B. Alexandre, Creole 
of the place, and there were Alexandres on Massacre. Later 
we find Pierre Paques, inhabitant "deLabbaye." In 1740, we 
again have Massacre named in the baptism of a son of Robert 
Ollivier, another resident. Both in 1728 and 1742 the island 
is mentioned as dependent on the Mobile parish. 

No soldiers are given for a long time, but it would seem 
there was often or always a garrison. In 1742, there was, for 
we learn that according to report of officers and soldiers of 
Massacre one J. B. Lozier, a private, was drowned in the 
lagoon. He did not, however, give his name to this cove, 
possibly that on which lay the settlement, as Derbane had long 
before to the river (now Bayou La Batre) where he perished. 
Even as late as 1762 we find mention of the garrison of Mas- 
sacre in the baptism of a child of Nicolas Bouvie, a soldier of 
that post. 

What we now call Little Dauphine Island we find on French 
maps of 1732 as Isle a Guillori, and it was probably so called 
for a resident, for in 1740 we have the baptism of the daughter 
of Gregoire Guillory, described as both a native and inhabitant 
of Massacre. His wife was Jeanne La Casse, inhabitant of 
the same parish. Guillory was nine years later to lose a 
daughter Louise, a younger child, and at this last date he is 
mentioned as living at Fish Eiver. But with the mention of 
Bouvie, in 1762, the record closes as to Massacre or Dauphine 



154 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Island, although Point Chugae (Chateaugue ?), Graveline Bay, 
Pont Vendigarde, and other existing names, indicate that there 
was more French history than we now know. Bon Secours 
Bay, beyond Mobile Point, ^as no doubt named on account of 
its security in time of storm. 

Across Mississippi Sound on what we now call Mon Louis 
Island, granted to him in 1710 as Grosse Pointe, long lived 
Nicolas Bodin. It was practically a part of the mainland. 
Miragouin, we learn from Penicaut, was established the year 
before.^ He bore this surname of Miragouin, — spelled differ- 
ently at different times. It was regarded as his barony, so to 
speak, for Sieur de Miragouin is his common title and signa- 
ture, too. The word seems to mean mosquito, and is not a 
strange origin for knighthood, — if sound plays any part. 

It was this settlement which was attacked by the Spaniards, 
in 1719, to pillage the goods of co7icessioTiaires stored there, 
but on their second landing the invaders were beaten off by 
the Mobilians, Indians always friendly to the French. They 
killed thirty Spaniards and captured seventeen more, whom 
they took to Mobile. There they broke their heads and threw 
the bodies over into the river. ^ It was the usual method of 
savage warfare, and Penicaut does not say that the French 
interfered to prevent this massacre of the prisoners. 

Our mosquito knight lived for more peaceful times, and we 
find him more than once in the Mobile church register. Pos- 
sibly the first time was in 1729, when the Chevalier Jean Bap- 
tiste de Bulbulli, Marquis de Pisa, in a very shaky hand, signs 
as sponsor of two slaves of Miraguin. The name occurs on 
the map of the Western Company, and the word is shown on 
Danville's map of about 1732 near Grosse Pointe. Two years 
after that Bodin and his wife Fran9oise Pailliet are mentioned 
as "habitants" of the colony, and the same year is baj)tized a 
son, and later a daughter, of J. B. Alexandre, whose wife is 
Franooise Hyppolite Bodin. Both are Creoles, and the god- 
mother is Mme. Miragoine. We have the exact date of his 
death in the register as February 6, 1746, when he is described 
as a native of Mont Louis in the archbishopric of Tours, and a 
captain of militia of this coast. Hence no doubt his name 
Monlouis, Two slaves of his "succession" are mentioned the 
next year. 

* 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 484. ^ Ibid., p. 569 



DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 155 

The name continued in his descendants, for as late as 1762 
there was baptized a son of "Louis Alexandre Bodin, dit 
Miragoine," and a slave of Monlouis is mentioned the next 
year. It may be that its belonging to one family prevented 
thick settlement of the country. Their home j)lace was the 
well-known Miragoine on the bay, rather towards the northern 
part of the island, according to maps. This was at the Del- 
champs residence, if we may rely on tradition, and old pecans 
still mark the spot, while near have been found remains of 
houses made of frame and mortar. A little below is Point 
Juliet, named for a Creole who married an Indian woman, and 
maps seem to mark this out as the Grosse Pointe for which the 
island was first named, although the cape in the sound at Pass 
a Barreau would better fit the name. 

Above Mon Louis on the Bay Bellefontaine marks the spring 
known to the French no less than to the Spaniards, and on the 
island, above the Narrows, is the site of the traditional French 
Vineyard. Lower is Bayou Diable, called, it is said, for the 
exclamation of a man caught in that cul-de-sac, as he was 
trying to steal a boat and take it through the Narrows, and 
coming in from the west is Bayou Coulangue, named, it may be, 
for some forgotten resident. A Coulange we read of as active 
in Perrier's Indian wars.^ 

About the sound end of Mon Louis Island are a number of 
places indicating French ownership at one time, such as Pass 
aux Herons, Pass aux Huitres by Cedar Point, Heron Bayou, 
Pass a Barreau, and perhaps Maupers Island, but not neces- 
sarily showing settlements. 

To the west on the mainland of the sound, Bayou Coden is 
but a barbarous form of "Coq d'Inde " (tvirke}^, and Pointe 
aux Pins (pines) is yet preserved. Near that point Isle aux 
Dames is found on official maps, and Coffee Island has the 
alternate name of Isle aux Herbes. The occasion of giving 
most of these names has been forgotten, but Bayou La Batre 
we have seen called River Labaterie, and was probably named 
from a French battery on the west bank.^ A mournful sound 

^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 282. 

2 John Ladinier used to point out to J. J. Delchamps the site where he 
had seen such a colonial battery, and by the Tait place is still a mound 
which may be a part of a fortification. 



156 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

heard from the waters of this coast is attributed by tradition to 
the suicide of its native races by phmging into Portersville 
Bay, — a story something like that of Pascagoula. 

Pascagoula, too, was early settled by the French. On the 
1732 map of Danville, Sr. La Pointe's place is shown about 
the fine oaks above the present railroad bridge, although of 
course the plan is not in sufficient detail to identify the exact 
spot. Across the river and bay, somewhat higher up, is 
marked the village of the Pascagoulas (Bread -eaters), and near 
the great bend, where now Is busy Moss Point, we find the 
famous Chaimiont concession. But the French settlement is 
also shown prominently on the earlier map of the Western 
Company, and may even have existed before then. 

Tradition goes even back of the French, and Gayarre tells 
the weird legend of a Spanish priest who came there after De 
Soto's battle at Mauvilla and established a mission among the 
mild Indians of that day. The cross, the bell, the mysterious 
box gradually weaned them from their worship of a mermaid, 
until once at midnight the sea and river rose in tidal waves 
under the light of the full moon, and on their crest appeared 
the maid pleading with irresistible music for her deluded 
children to come back to her. And come back they did, 
plunging one after the other into the water, leaving the dis- 
tracted priest alone upon the shore. Laughing then, she disap- 
peared, and the waters with her. 

The father declared a crucifix, dropped in the river at full 
moon, would break the spell, but that the priest who did it 
would also die, and no one has ever dared to verify the predic- 
tion. But her music may still be heard, even in these prosaic 
days, coming up from under boats of fishermen. For the 
charm has never been broken. 

The first entry in the Mobile records, curiously enough in 
view of the legend, is the certificate of burial, in 1726, of sev- 
eral people found drowned in Fish Eiver at Pascagoula, for 
this settlement, too, was long dependent on the Mobile parish. 
Then comes the baptism of the child of Francois Rilieu, of 
Pascagoula, and, in 1734, we notice the marriage there of Bau- 
drau, of Dauphine Island, at the house of La Pointe. This is 
written on a loose slip of paper and announces that one ban 
only was published after Sunday mass, the other two being 



/ 



DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 157 



dispensed with. Tlie reason of this doubtless was that Mathieu 
visited the place so infrequently. 

Not until 1758 do we hear of Pascagoula again, except a 
casual mention of Rilieu and wife and child as resident there. 
There was once the baptism of the daughter of a Pascagoula 
Indian woman, but this was possibly at Mobile. In the year 
1758 was baptized Joseph, sou of Maturin Christian Cadner, 
an inhabitant of Pascagoula ; but this seems to be the last church 
record of the place. 

There is, in the registers, a mention or so of the death of 
sailors for the great company or the king, but the navigation 
between Dauphine Island and Mobile, and between the city 
and the river forts, was not managed by these matelots. In 
1728 is mentioned the widow of Branquinier, late captain of 
traversier, and the next year we find Boudignon with the 
usual title for captain of small boats, — patron. He acted as 
late as 1746, when his wife is named as Anne Poirie. In 1731, 
Sr. Francois Harmon was master pilot, and next year "Theo- 
dore Robin dit Lanois " patro7i for the king. 

A few years later the death of J, L. Vinant is mentioned, 
captain of a boat in the service of the king. In 1737, we first 
notice Francis Girard as patron, and three years later Jean 
Girard, his father, who was to act as such for so long a time. 
His print signature is very frequent in the registers. His 
wife was Marie Anne Daniau, Creole of Mobile, whose death 
was to be subsequently noted. In the year 1737 we have the 
first name of a local boat, — La Marguerite, — whose " second 
captain" was Louis Pierre Sevet, and later is named Mr. 
^Uon as captain of the boat (bateau), but her name is not 
given. In 1758 was buried in the hospital cemetery Andre 
Miot, patron for the king, and in the same year died Jean 
Girard also, while a few years afterwards is mentioned a new 
patron, — J. B. Nicaise, called Vade Bon Coeur ; the last of 
the French boat captains. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 

As Massacre Island was the initial point of settlement and 
Pascagonla the furthest westward of the Mobile district, so up 
the rivers Fort Toulouse, four miles below where Wetumpka 
now stands, near the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa 
rivers, was the furthest inland the French reached in perma- 
nent occupation towards the English colonies on the Atlantic 
coast. It was built by Bienville in 1714, and was the cause 
of great anxiety to the English all through the French regime. 
Its first commandant was Mandeville, who had eight cannon 
and thirty men.^ There were two cannon in each of the four 
bastions. 

This was in the Creek country, in the immediate territory 
of the Alibamons. It was a depot for exchange of French 
articles for skins and other products, brought by the Indians 
from their hunting-grounds, and thence floated down the Ala- 
bama Eiver by the patrons to the sea at Mobile. Its impor- 
tance, strategically speaking, has been already noticed, and 
Adair habitually speaks of it as the "dangerous Alebahma." 
It was at the head of navigation of the Coosa and Tallapoosa 
rivers, and a bar to the invasion of the French possessions by 
turning the southern flank of the Alleghany Mountains. After 
Georgia was settled, those English colonists realized that it 
was conversely a menace to their own safety, and about 1735 
they built a corresponding fort on the Tallapoosa at Okfuskee, 
forty miles away. This they maintained for several years. ^ 
At one time the Creeks much resented French interference in 
their matters, according to Adair, while Bossu says they 
brooked no English influences.^ Bossu gives an accovmt of 

1 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 223. 2 /j/j.^ p. 316. 

2 Adair's American Indians, pp. 321, 338 ; Bossu's Travels, pp. 255, 270, 
274. 



RarBumnUf 



Nitahiourits ouForla I'Ours 

It// iwll-ivu;n< 



"V^^ ^^vJfSau/ J'trwumJpifJ. 



^/SacUUle, IT^iir ntjn-l 



^V 






'"»*V- 



>fl 



HD^ 



The River Basin, 



ABOUT 1732. 



FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 159 

the visit of the Coweta "emperor" in his day, when the tutor 
or regent of the young eastern monarch disposed of the knife 
and fork difficulty by taking up his part of the turkey and 
declaring that the Master of Life made fingers first. 

The name of the fort so established upon the Coosa River 
was Toulouse, but the church registers, as Bossu, too, almost 
invariably call it by that of the Indian district, — "Aux 
Alibamons." However, the first mention was in 1721, and 
the priests had then begun to use the Indian name Mobile, too, 
instead of Fort Conde. Besides, there is reason to suppose 
that the French called all of the Upper Creeks by the name 
Alibamons because that tribe of the confederacy was lowest on 
the river, and thus earliest and closest in contact with the post 
at Mobile, although strictly speaking not Creeks at all. 

The Indian legend was that the Alibamons and Creeks were 
not akin, but on the contrary enemies, the latter pursuino- the 
former all during the long flight from Mexico, until they were 
finally reconciled by the French at Mobile. But this last we 
know is untrue. Almost the first war of the French was that 
of Boisbriant, in 1702, against the Alibamons, and we remem- 
ber also the great expedition of Alibamons, Cheraquis, C "aw- 
bas, and Creeks against the French in 1708. The French at 
first were their foes, not friends. 

The Creeks or Muscogees were, in some respects, the most 
mteresting of the southern tribes. Like the Chickasaws, they 
were expert deer hunters, and were brave fighters. Their 
Tustenuggee, or "emperor," sent around .. red club as a 
signal for war, although using red and white for war and peace 
and taking the black drink before battle was common to the 
Choctaws also. Each warrior carried in war a bag of parched 
corn meal, of which an ounce would make a pint of broth. 
Captured warriors are said to have been burned by the squaws 
in the public square, although modern Creeks deny this fact. 
These squares distinguished the towns from the villages, and 
there, too, was celebrated in July or August the busk, or feast 
of first-fruits. The square had about it the great house, coun- 
cil house, and the appurtenant playground for the games. 
Their ball play from descriptions might be termed a combina- 
tion of tennis and football. 

The Creeks had picture-writmg and beads, and apparently 



160 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

a female language different from that spoken by the men. 
There was no sex to their nouns. Case was denoted by suffixes 
more distinctly than with the Choctaw s, although the Choctaws 
had a more delicate phonetic ear. As with those kinsmen, de- 
scent was counted through the mother. 

It would be interesting to map out the Creek country about 
Fort Toulouse and show its towns. But these were not perma- 
nent, and their sites not all known. Beyond saying that the 
country was along the upper Alabama and its sources and on 
the Chattahoochee, and that of the towns Coosa (Cosa) in north 
Georgia was the capital in and after De Soto's day, and Took- 
abatcha, near Fort Toulouse, the chief town in later times, it 
would not be safe to go. Adair, in tracing resemblances to the 
Jews, mentions old Coosa as in his time a "city of refuge," 
and at Tookabatcha were kept the mysterious brass plates 
named by Adair. Tuskegee, Tallassee, Coweta, and many 
other towns are known on these rivers ; but their sites are not 
always certain nor when they flourished. 

French influence was long preponderant in this "Alibamon" 
district. The Creek word for soldier, "sulitawa," is a monu- 
ment of this fact, for it is taken from the French. The French 
must have been just, for we learn that, in 1740, the commandant 
had one of his soldiers shot for killing an Indian, as D'Erne- 
ville similarly insisted on the death of an Indian for killing a 
Frenchman. It was to Fort Toulouse that the sagacious 
Priber, after five years' supremacy among the Cherokees, was 
going, in 1741, on his way to Mobile, when he was captured by 
the English and carried to Frederica, Georgia. There he died 
in confinement. The Cherokees do not often concern us, but 
the English suffered from them for eight years in South Caro- 
lina, and lay the blame on French and Jesuit influence in that 
quarter. It was at Fort Alabama that Adair was imprisoned 
a fortnight for activity among the Indians. He managed to 
escape an hour before the king's boat left, which was to carry 
him down to Mobile to be hanged. And it was from there 
that Montberaut captured among the Indians those mutineers 
who had killed Duroux of Cat Island in 1758, and sent them 
down to Mobile under De Beaudin to be executed with Beau- 
drot.i 

^ Detailed references would be too numerous ; but much of the above is 



FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 161 

The earliest church entry (1721) naming the French post is 
in the baptism by Mathieu of a daughter of Michel Mandre 
at Mobile, and mentions the grandmother as Mme. Catherine 
(elsewhere Genevieve) Raymond, wife of "Ecuyer Seigneur de 
Pechon, Major des Alibamons." The major signs the minute 
himself, and so was in Mobile at the time. Two years later 
Ecuier Crepin de Pechon and wife, mentioned as noble persons, 
themselves have a child baptized, Chateaugue, then lieutenant 
for the whole of Louisiana, and the wife of commandant Ma- 
rigny de Mandeville acting as sponsors. 

It is difficult to make the history of the Marchand mutiny, as 
generally given, fit into these entries, which clearly imply that 
Pechon was, during these years, a major and ranking officer of 
the post. 

As told by Pickett, Marchand was captain there in com- 
mand, in 1722.^ Indeed, it is implied that he had been there 
several years, for he was by a natural marriage with the Indian 
princess Sehoy already father of a little girl, herseK to be 
famous as Sehoy, mother of the celebrated chief McGillivray. 
La Tour, we know from Penicaut, commanded from 1717," so 
that in any event Marchand must begin after him. In 1722, 
however, according to the story, supplies were scarce, and the 
garrison, part of whom were Swiss, rose in mutiny, and killed 
Marchand. They sacked the storeroom, burned the buildings, 
and made off with all they could carry towards Carolina. 

The unnamed priest was absent, and only returned in time 
to mourn the ruin and bury Marchand. When Villemont, the 
second in command, came in, he called on friendly Creeks and 
pursued and fought the deserters. Many were killed, and 
eight prisoners captured. These were sent to Mobile by boat, 
and there promptly executed. 

But the church registers make a change of date necessary, 
unless we are to suppose that two Marchands commanded the 
post. For Marchand de Courtel is mentioned after this as a 
captain at Mobile, and not as commanding at the Alibamons 
until 1727. A lieutenant and two sergeants of his company 

abbreviated from YicketVs Alabama and Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend. 
See, also, Adair's American Indians (London, 1775), pp. 159, 242, 295, 343, 
348, and Bossn's Travels, pp. 226, 250, 324. 

^ 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 266. ^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 550. 



162 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

are named at this same time, 1726-27, necessarily before the 
company were all shot or sawed to pieces. 

Returning to Pechon, he, in 1725, was still major at the 
Alibamon fort, whose name Toulouse is mentioned. This 
occurs in the baptism by Father Claude of Marie Louise, 
daughter of this same Pechon Le Conte, — for the worthy 
major has his name different in the different entries. At the 
baptism of a daughter, in 1730, he is named as infantry cap- 
tain and 2JS, formerly major at Fort Toulouse. His son Joseph 
Crepin de Pechon was baptized two years afterwards. 

From a later act we learn something of Pechon 's death. 
This instrument by Jean Francois was made, on the request of 
his son Antoine de Conte, Seigneur de Pechon, and certifies, 
on the testimony of M. Gondreau, J. J. Beauchamps, and J. 
P. Le Sueur, that Pechon died at Fort Toulouse on February 
19, 1736. The family were prominent, and seem, in 1760, to 
have owned the place northeast of our Government and St. 
Emanuel streets. 

The office of garde magasin was an important one at such 
a trading-post, and we have the names of several who occupied 
the position. In 1737, it was Michael "Gondeau," who the year 
before was surgeon-major as well, and at some time mystified 
the Indians by pouring out a little quicksilver, which they 
had never before seen. In 1751, Jean Charles Trouillet, who 
had married Marguerite Rochon, and, in 1755, if not earlier, 
Sieur Alexandre du Parquet held the place. Trouillet had 
died before that while descending the river, and was buried 
by the royal 2ycitro7i, St. Jean. The river j^ttti'O)}, as La Rose 
earlier, is sometimes called patron of the Alibamons. It is to 
be hoped that the trip up did not usually consume fifty days, 
as with Bossu.i The Jand route was also in use, and we learn, 
in 1749, of the death and burial of one Fr. Melisan on the 
road (chemin) of the Alibamons. In 1759, Aubert, who was 
sick, came on horseback. 

Of other officials we know Fr. Saucier as sub-engineer in 
1751, and Laubene (Lavnoue?) as interpreter later. Mission- 
aries they seldom had. Such lack of minister is recorded in 
1732, and the number of baptisms at Mobile of children born 
at Fort Toulouse proves it for other years. 

1 Bossu's Travels, pp. 226, 269. 



FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 163 

We learn that about 1726 the Jesuit De Guyenne went, 
necessarily, by way of Fort Toulouse, on a mission to the 
Creeks, and built a cabin at Cusseta, as well as another at 
Coweta on the Chattahoochee. But the English, about the time 
they built their Okfuskee fort, induced the Indians to burn these 
and drive the priest back to Toulouse. After the Natchez 
massacre he labored among the Arkansas.^ In 1740, the Jesuit 
Morand performed function of cure at the fort, and thence 
certified to the death there of Sieur Joseph Poupart of Mobile. 
Morand also went on a mission occasionally to Coosada, lower 
down, but, when the English under Oglethorpe were, in the 
thirties, founding Georgia and pushing actively into the interior 
even of the Alabama basin, this father was recalled to take 
charge of the hospital and nuns at New Orleans. ^ His full 
name was William Francis Morand. He was born 1701, and 
entered the society at nineteen in Lyons. He arrived in Can- 
ada in 1735, and died in Louisiana, 1761. 

It was another father (Le Koi) whom commandant Montbe- 
raut drove away for complaining of him to the governor and 
then denying that he wrote the letter. Montberaut, in conse- 
quence, had to baptize when the rite was required. 

The church version of this difficulty, however, is that the 
priest opposed the sale of liquor to the Indians. Whatever 
the cause, Bossu describes Montberaut as an avowed enemy of 
these missionaries.^ Max. Le Roi was born 1716, entered the 
society at seventeen, in what is now Belgium, and came to 
Canada in 1750. In 1763, he went to Mexico. 

From 1754, imtil the expulsion of Jesuits from Louisiana 
by decree of the Superior Council, June 9, 1763, Father Jean 
Jacques Le Predour was on this mission, but he was the last. 

The presence of Jesuits at Fort Toulouse, and, as we shall 
see, at Fort Tombecbe seems at first glance remarkable when 
we remember that they were excluded from Mobile, which 
belonged to the Capuchins. But in the division of 1722, they 
were allowed to keep a resident at New Orleans, and the flexi- 
ble district of the Illinois was assigned them, and by the treaty 

1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 317 ; Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, pp. 
572, 575. 

2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 317. 

^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 584 ; Bossu's Travels, p. 228. 



164 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

with the Company, of 1726, the Alibamons and Choctaws were 
definitely assigned the Jesuits. The Jesuits on the Missis- 
sippi also occupied down to the Natchez, and apparently by the 
bishop's consent.^ 

According to Pickett, also, D'Aubant succeeded Montberaut 
in 1759, and his Kussian jirincess wife and their daughter 
joined him there. But the church records seem to contradict 
this. Monbereau, as they spell it, was succeeded, in 1758, by 
J. B. Aubert, and his wife was Louise Marguerite of the 
prominent Bernoudy family. She died in .1759, and was bur- 
ied in the church at Mobile. It seems a pity the story may 
not be true, for it is romantic and interesting, but the church 
records can hardly be gainsaid. Aubert might do for Aubant 
(and Bossu says Aubert succeeded in 1759, although adjutant 
at Mobile), but Louise Marguerite Bernoudy can hardly pose 
for a Russian princess. Grand Maison is named after Aubert,^ 
and Lavnoue was the last commandant. 

The site of Fort Toulouse was to be perpetuated by the fact 
that Andrew Jackson in our century adopted it, and, repairing 
the fort, used it in his war with the Indians. The relentless 
Ijlough has left little of it. It stood on a bold bluff of the 
Coosa, but only one half-ploughed-up bastion, facing towards 
the not distant Tallapoosa, now remains. 

No trace is there of the landing-place or of the road leading 
to it, but here it was that the French shipped peltries and 
received supplies, in this fort traded with the Alibamons and 
Creeks, and broke the English influence from the Carolinas. 
Near by are many fragments of Indian pottery, some glazed, 
some not,' and other evidences that savages lived there under 
the guns of the fort. The French cannon have long since dis- 
appeared, and all that is left is a little brass mortar, with 
handles, on which some modern has cut the name "De Soto" 
and "No. 12." Probably a Frenchman did it, for the piece 
was only lately dug up, and acquired by W. P. Gaddis, of We- 
tumpka, but the piece itself may date back to Spanish times. 

Further down the river is a large Indian mound about 
twenty feet high and possibly two hundred in its irregular 
circumference. It is abrupt on the side facing the Coosa, but 

^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 567 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 261. 
2 Bossu's Travels, pp. 241 n., 250, 269. 



FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 165 

slopes off on the opposite face. Some one once sunk a shaft 
in the top, and it is said bones, beads, and pottery have been 
found there. Certain it is, small pieces of pottery can still be 
seen all over the mound, generally rude and unglazed, but 
sometimes ornamented with lines. Stone hatchets are also 
there, and bits of flint chips abound. Trees and vines have 
covered the mound; but it remains a prominent object in the 
landscape, and remarkable as the only place in the neighbor- 
hood not submerged in recent floods. 

Far to the west on the Tombigbee was another French out- 
post, — Fort Tombecbe. We saw it built originally by Bien- 
ville's order, as a base in his Chickasaw expedition, but it was 
not finished until later. From it went back to Mobile the 
defeated French, but it was essential to maintain the post per- 
manently in order to watch the Indians and keep them in 
check. This wooden fort was a lonesome and dangerous place, 
and only brave men were fit to be its garrison, and supervise 
the trade and politics of the Choctaws.^ 

The site was above the confluence of the Bigbee and War- 
rior, near the present Epes Station on A. G. S. Railroad, and 
can still be traced. On White Rock Bluff, a part of Jones' 
Bluff, in present Sumter County, Alabama, eighty feet above 
low water, are visible remains of the embankment, about four 
feet high, with ditches almost as deep. The fort was in the 
angle between the river and a "branch" or brook emptying 
into it about one hundred yards above where the railroad 
crosses the Bigbee River. It inclosed, perhaps, one acre, 
now covered with a thick growth of cedars, two to three feet in 
diameter.^ 

The fort at its greatest extent faced the river 173 feet, the 
branch gully on the south 304, and on the north 231 and west 
278 feet, with curtains about ten feet high. There were three 
gates, and a stockade on all sides. Inside the fort were oven, 
storehouses, interpreter's apartment, men's barracks, guard- 
house, granary, and officers' building. Two of the houses there 
are given as 30 X 13 feet and 19 X 12 feet. There was also a 
house out of the fort intended for the savages. These were 

* Pickett's Alabama, p. 335 ; Adair's American Indians, pp. 267, 285. 
2 Information derived from J. J. Hilman, of Epes, Alabama ; report of 
Ford in British Colonial Records, London. 



166 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Choctaws, and had a large town within a musket-shot of the 
fort. 

The phiee was selected because of the river and the neighbor- 
hood of the Choctaws, being just below their boundary with 
the Chickasaws. They were the best friends the French had 
among the larger southern tribes, but we have seen that Eng- 
lish traders finally succeeded in stirring up a long Choctaw 
civil war, in which the eastern division (Oypat-oocooloo, or 
small nation) contended with the western ones, called Oocooloo- 
falaya, Oocooloo-hanale, and Chickasawhay-s. They were less 
cleanly tlian the Creeks, their inveterate foes, and less aggres- 
sive in war ; but in defensive hostilities their courage could not 
be questioned. They, too, had chunkey and the ball play, but 
they were unlike the Creeks in living less in towns. They 
were often called Flatheads from their compressing the heads 
of male infants. In hunting, they followed particularly the 
bear, wildcat, and panther. From pity they strangled their 
own incurable sick, and they did not torture their captives, but 
killed them outright and burned their remains. They slept 
around a war fire in a circle, while the Creeks slept in a row.^ 

In the time of the trader Adair, their principal town was 
Yowanne, apparently high up on Pearl lliver, although he also 
mentions seven towns as close together and towards New Or- 
leans. He speaks of three trading-paths to Mobile. The 
westernmost was a horse-path from the Chickasaws and passed 
through these towns, the middle one by the "Chakchooma old 
fields," which with the one nearest the Bigbee was exposed 
then to Muscogee inroads. ^ The Yowanne path branched off 
from the Buckatunna a short distance west of Mobile. Ko- 
mans places "Yoani" in his day (1771) on the Paseagoula 
River. He visited the place, and seems to be the author of 
the rather incredible statement that no other Choctaws can 
swim except those of Yowanne and Chickasawhay, — a pecul- 
iarity shown by the horses, too ! 

1 This summary, like that as to the Creeks, is largely abbreviated from 
Pickett and Gatschet. See, also, Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 212 ; 
Adair's American Indians, p. 318, etc. ; Romans' Florida, pp. GG, 73. In- 
formation as to Morand, Le Roy, and Le Fevre, was furnished from Jesuit 
archives by D. P. Lawton, of Spring Hill College, Alabama. 

* Adair's American Indians, p. 298, etc. ; Romans' Florida, p. 8G. 



FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 167 

One curious survival of French influence is that the Choc- 
taws adopted from their " Soulier" the word "shulush" for 
shoe. Red Shoe's Indian name of " Shoolashummashtabe " 
seems to incorporate the word. He, by the way, was a swift 
runner, and could overtake the active Spanish barbs which the 
Chickasaws and Choctaws rode. 

Fort Tombecbe was important in the control of this race, 
whom the French managed by presents of arms and goods 
brought from Mobile. 

Of one of these long river trips we have an account, for in 
1759 Bossu went up the river with three boats to convey pro- 
visions and ammunition to the fort from Mobile. In a week he 
reached the Forks, near Mcintosh's Bluff, where an alligator 
dragged him almost into the river. It was due to his sleepmg 
on the bluff with a barbel wrapped up at his feet in his tent. 

After going up about fifty leagues he struck very low water, 
and had to unload his goods, and even pull the boats along with 
lines. At some point on the trip they suffered for want of pro- 
visions, and he considered the relief providential. It was due 
to Indians cutting down a tree holding the nest of a royal 
eagle, and in this they found swans, rabbits, turkeys, grouse, 
partridges, and pigeons, which the parent birds had provided 
for the little eaglets. The Indians not only robbed the nest of 
the provisions, but killed the fighting eagles, and took the young 
ones. At Taskaloussas or White Mountain, probably near the 
mouth of the Black Warrior Hiver, Mingo Howmas and some 
revolted Choctaws threatened them, but finally they pacified 
the savages and smoked the calumet of peace. Bossu much 
surprised French and Indians alike by lighting the pipe with 
phosphorus. 

The rest of the trip was more pleasant on account of a rise 
in the river and assistance sent under De Cabaret from Fort 
Tombecbe. During the whole journey the travelers had to 
spend the nights on the banks, tormented by marlngoins (mos- 
quitoes), except so far as they could keep them off by sleeping 
under a linen cloth spread on bent reeds. They were certainly 
rejoiced to arrive at the fort, where Chabbert commanded. It 
had taken from August 20 to September 25 to accomplish the 
himdred leagues. ^ 

1 Bossu's Travels, pp. 279, 285, .317. 



168 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

The first entry in the church registers at Mobile relating to 
Fort Tombecbe was in 1739, and was what might be expected 
after Bienville's unfortunate expedition. Le Sueur was in 
command, and, in default of a priest or chaplain (aumonier) 
there, the record is made at Mobile by Amand of the killing 
of a soldier by the Indians. It seems that this man, a Swiss 
named Aubergeron, was fishing in the river above the fort 
when he was assassinated in his pirogue. The first intimation 
of it to the garrison was when the current brought the corpse 
down to Tombecbe, where Le Sueur gave it proper burial and 
notified the commandant at Mobile. 

We learn nothing more for several years. Then, in 1743, 
it is recorded that according to the report of olftcers of that 
post St. Hermand Fouke, soldier of the convoye, was drowned 
in the river of Tombecbe, and later in that year we are told 
that Mme. Pierre Mozel was buried at her home on the same 
river. Of them, however, we know oidy the names. 

Adair says that to French influence at this post were due the 
Choctaw invasions of Carolina in the middle of the century, 
although the more immediate aim of Vaudreuil was to use the 
fort to keep the Choctaws in the French interest and hostile to 
the English-loving Chickasaws.^ Except Le Sueur, we know 
little of any of the commandants, but the first and De Berthel, 
whom Bienville left there with a garrison of thirty French 
and twenty Swiss, and De Grand-pre in or before 1751. He 
it was that successfully carried out Vaudreuil's negotiations, 
which resulted in the pacification of the Choctaws after Red 
Shoe's revolt. De la Gauterais was in command at some time, 
and performed a remarkable feat. He built a raft of cedar 
which drew twelve feet and contained five hundred tons of 
timber, and took advantage of a freshet to float it to Mobile. 
In fact, it was not stopped until it reached modern Montrose. 
De la Gauterais came down on it himself, bringing four other 
men. 2 

Then we find Pierre Chabert, whom Bossu met, the last 
commandant under the French. Gardes magasin are oftener 
named. In the year 1743, in records of baptisms of Indian 
slaves, we learn that Cartier is garde magasin and Sieur 

1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 264, 268. See Bossu, supra. 

2 Romans' Florida, p. 211. 



FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 169 

Troulllet, called Argent, surgeon there. Three years later, 
Francois Lierle (?) is storekeeper, but in 1748 Trouillet occu- 
pies that position. 

This office of garde magasin at Tombecbe seems to have 
changed hands often. In 1758 we learn from the entry of 
baptism of his daughter, Marguerite Felicite, that the incum- 
bent was Alexandre Claude Du Parquier. The next year 
Valentin Dubroca was garde magasin, and we find him such 
throuo-h 1761, and he was there until the French abandoned 
the iovt. His wife was Martha Fievre, and during this time 
the Mobile register records the baptism of two of their chil- 
dren, — Marie Marthe, and Valentin. 

But no record remains of the other officials, except that 
during Bossu's visit the chaplain was the Jesuit Le Fevre. 
This was Nicolas Le Fevre of present Belgium, who was born 
1705, entered the order at eighteen, and came to Canada 1743. 
The year of his death is uncertain, but probably it was before 

1764. 

In 1726, when Guyenne went on the Alibamon mission, the 
Jesuit Maturin Le Petit went among the Choctaws. After 
Beaubois, the Jesuit superior, had been recalled, Le Petit 
succeeded him at New Orleans. The Canadian Michael Bau- 
douin also came to Louisiana in 1726, the year of Jesuit activ- 
ity, and we find him by 1739 on the Choctaw mission, where 
he was to be for eighteen years, assisted part of the time by 
the above Father Le Fevre. He has been accused of immorality 
amono- his charge, but this seems unlikely, for he was, in 1747, 
promo'ted to be vicar-general of the bishop of Quebec, over the 
protest of the Capuchins. 

But where was the seat of this Choctaw mission ? Hardly 
at Fort Tombecbe, despite Shea's guess,i for we often find it 
without religious services, and, moreover, the Jesuits always 
lived among their flocks. It is more likely that it was on the 
site where Bernard Komans, in 1771, was to find a lightwood 
cross and the site of a destroyed chapel. This was at Chick- 
asawhay, which was probably. the Choctaw station shown even 
on early American maps as in east Mississippi upon the Chicka- 
sawhay River, some miles west of Fort Tombecbe. Romans 
says the priest could not convert the Indians, and this seems 
1 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, pp. 572, 583, 585. 



170 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

probable from their conduct. He relates that when the Eng- 
lish came, the Indians would mimic the motions of the Jesuits 
and the sacred ceremonies of the church.^ 
^ Komans' Florida, p. 78. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 

When Dauphine Island harbor was closed by a bar, and 
New Orleans later became the capital of the province, Mobile 
not only ceased to direct the development of the Mississippi 
Valley, but she largely lost touch with it. If Ichabod could 
not be written on the portal of Fort Conde, at least its glory 
was limited to the Alabama basin. As Matthew Arnold wrote 
of denominations differing from that to which he nominally 
belonged, Mobile was out of the current of national life. But, 
remembering the extent of its actual territory, it can hardly be 
said that her annals were merely hole-in-corner history, as the 
satirical advocate of sweetness and light said of the dissenters. 
Our story has now reached the point where we are directly 
concerned with the result of the struggle between the English 
and French colonies. 

The two systems of colonization had gone on side by side. 
The English progressed more slowly, but with sure reduction 
and settlement of the land, while the daring French penetrated 
everywhere, but brought over few colonists, and cultivated 
little. Yet by Bossu's time, indigo, cotton, and tobacco were 
extensively produced. The standing argument of the French 
with the Indians was that the English wished to exterminate 
them and occupy their lands. True as this has proved, and 
powerfully as it generally acted on the savage mind, the Eng- 
lish, nevertheless, attracted them by being cheaper traders, and 
even on Lake Ontario two beaver skins bought as good a brace- 
let from the English at Oswego as ten did from the French at 
Niagara. 1 The Indians sided with the French, but where pos- 
sible bought their goods of the English. 

The two nations had always been jealous, and their colonists 
shared the spirit. At first, when the English colonies hugged 
the seaboard and French emissaries penetrated everywhere, an 

1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 287 ; Bossu's Travels, p. 375, etc. 



1T2 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Iberville might indeed, with Indian help, have driven the Anglo- 
Americans into the sea. But by the middle of the eighteenth 
century the English had increased in numbers and occupied 
well back to the mountain passes. Germans had settled the 
interior of Pennsylvania, and Lord Fairfax was not the only 
landowner in the valley of the Shenandoah who gave work to 
young surveyors like George Washington. The thirteen colo- 
nies were divided, and indisposed to help in a war which 
Franklin felt was really for the benefit of English merchants.^ 
But bolder counsels were finally to prevail, a union to be felt, 
if not actually organized, which was the precursor of the Con- 
federation, twenty years later, against the English crown itself. 
When it is recollected that the English in America probably 
equaled a million and a half, while the French were less than 
ninety thousand, and that of these the inhabitants of Louisiana 
were too fai? away from the seat of war to be effective, there 
could be no doubt as to the result. ^ 

The Peace of Utrecht determined, for a long time, the rela- 
tions of France and England, for the French possessions in 
America were so vast that the loss of Acadia and Newfound- 
land was after a while almost forgotten. It is true that in the 
war of the Austrian Succession, beginning in 1740, the two 
nations were again opposed, and that English colonists helped 
in the capture of Louisburg and Cape Breton, but the Peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, provided for a mutual restitution 
of conquests. And yet there was an hereditary antipathy, 
surviving, perhaps, from Roman and Teuton. It was felt that 
there could not co-exist two such colonizing nations. The world 
was not big enough, and a struggle for India and America must 
come at last. 

France was weaker than in the time of Louis XIV. ; Eng- 
land was stronger, particularly at sea. Pitt was the embodi- 
ment of the will of his nation, bent on the humiliation as much 
as the defeat of France; and while Louis XV., who had taken 
the reins of power in 1723, was exemplary at first, from 1737 
he became bent only on his pleasures and mistresses. The 
final struggle iu America came in the Seven Years' War, from 
1757-63. Instead of a vast New France hemming in the Eng- 
lish colonies between the mountains and the ocean, as had been 

1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 350, ^ Ibid., p. 347. 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 173 

dreamed by Iberville, who was dead, and Bienville, who was 
still living, a private Parisian, the French were now to contend 
for their very existence in America. In EurojDe the war was 
fought for England by her Prussian ally, Frederick the Great, 
but in Asia and America she struggled hand to hand with her 
hereditary foe. 

Clear-headed colonists realized well enough that Canada 
could not be permitted to grow up alongside them as a French 
dependency and thus involve the American colonies in every 
war between the mother countries. It was equally clear to 
such men as Franklin that the same was true of the Ohio Val- 
ley, in 1749 formally occupied by Celoron, and would ulti- 
mately become not less true of the whole Mississippi basin. 
The two portals to this basin were at Fort Duquesne, now 
Pittsburg, and down on the Tennessee River. The southern 
flank of the great mountain barrier could, we have seen, be 
turned through Georgia, as the northern was to be by Lake 
George and the St. Lawrence Valley. 

In the first years of the war the French had the advantage, 
particularly shown in Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne. 
But mass gradually prevailed even over organization, and the 
St. Lawrence expedition under Wolfe finally settled the fate 
of the French in America. There was but desultory warfare 
south of Pennsylvania, for the southern colonies of neither 
side were strong: enouoli to undertake offensive movements 
over the intervening wilderness. At the north the foes were 
closer together, and it was, moreover, instinctively felt that 
Quebec was the true key to all French America. 

Little aid could come from Louisiana, although Mobile offi- 
cers advocated invading Georgia and Carolina with Choctaws,^ 
but all in that province watched the conflict with absorbing 
interest. News came only infrequently to Mobile, but we can 
imagine Grondel poring over such dispatches as arrived and 
the garrison of Fort Conde, from commandant down, eagerly 
discussing the war. Quebec fell September 12, 1759, and 
anxious must have been the little city on the southern gulf, 
when came the news that the capital, from which some had 
come, and to which all looked as the American Paris, was in 
the hands of the hated English, that Vaudreuil, so lately pro- 
i Bossu's Travels, p. 292. 



174 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

motecl from among them, was a fugitive. Added to fears for 
the future, the southern colonists suffered much from financial 
mismanagement. As the war prevented bringing money from 
France, the governor-general was authorized to issue bills, 
called 6o/?s, in amounts from ten sols to one hundred livres, 
drawn on the royal treasury. Kerlerec negotiated some through 
Jamaica and other English colonies, but in October, 1759, the 
king by an edict suspended payment of them, to the amount 
of seven million livres. This paper made up all the colonial 
currency, and widespread ruin was the restilt, the more bitter 
as contrasted with the prosperity then prevailing and due to 
openly favoring importation of negroes. 

Quarrels, of course, were not lacking between governor and 
intendant, as of old, and there was almost civil war when, in 
1759, Rochemore seized two English smuggling vessels under 
the Jew Diaz Anna at New Orleans, and Kerlerec released 
them and permitted sale of their cargoes because the colonists 
stood so much in need of the goods they brought. Kerlerec 
arrested Marigny de Mandeville, Bossu, and other partisans of 
the intendant and shipped them to France. His conduct was 
disapproved at court, and this was ultimately to lead to his 
own recall and imprisonment in the Bastille.^ He died of grief 
shortly after his release. 

The end of the war came September 8, 1760, when Vaudreuil 
at Montreal surrendered Canada. Father Ferdinand, when he 
thought of his bishop a prisoner, could but pray that the storm 
reach not Mobile. And, in fact, it did not. While Louisiana 
was to be affected by the result, there was no fighting near its 
Gulf coast. 

If the great commoner was to be influenced in his views of 
American aggrandizement by a book dedicated to him at the 
time, he would have not spent much blood or money to acquire 
Mobile. 

The geographer of this era of English expansion was Thomas 
Jeffreys. In 1760, no doubt to show what American conquests 
might mean, he published at London the "Natural and Civil 
History of the French Dominions in North and South Amer- 
ica," with maps of many places. Mobile has no plan, and 

1 Pittnian's Mississippi Settlements, pp. 14, 15, 59, 67; 1 Martin's Louisiana, 
pp. 334, 343. 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 175 

indeed little is said of it, and that little unfavorable. Du 
Pratz is his principal guide. 

Approaching from the sea, we learn from him of Isle Dau- 
phine that it enjoys a burning heat, the soil is barren, and 
the island is little more than sand so white as to injure the eye- 
sight. It has one advantage in that one can find plenty of the 
finest fresh water by digging in this sand a very small distance 
from the shore, and again the seas are alive with excellent fish. 
Pines and firs abound, and there is a plant bearing i)07n7nes de 
raquette (prickly pear), which is a sovereign remedy for dysen- 
tery. 

In his section on the products of Louisiana he describes the 
"Spanish Beard" (hanging-moss), acacia, wax-tree, cedar, 
canes, and many other trees and plants, as well as animals, 
but his reports of Mobile are so black that one is not certain 
he can mean that these advantages exist about here. The soil 
near this river is said to be extremely barren, but the interior 
is tolerably fertile. Fort Conde is barely named, and Fort 
Tombecbe, about one hundred and forty leagues higher, is im- 
portant only for fine cedars and potter's earth. About Fort 
Toulouse, the "canton is said to be one of the finest countries 
in the whole world." 

The soil on the coast is of sand as white as snow, with pines, 
cedars, and some green oaks. The river Mobile has a bed of 
sand, and is far from equal to the Mississippi in plenty of fish. 
The Mobile's banks are of gravel and earth and from its source 
equally barren, but the lands are somewhat better about the 
river of Alibamons. Like river, like peojole. "The lands and 
water of the Mobile are extremely unfertile, not only in plants 
and fishes, but, as the quality of both these contributes much 
to the decrease of animals, the same effect happens with respect 
to the inhabitants, many of the women having become barren 
on their settling in these parts; as, on the contrary, they have 
recovered on removing to the banks of the Mississippi. The 
interior parts of this country must be exempted from this 
quality common to many parts near the sea."i 

Verily a doubting Thomas, aiming at truth, perhaps, —but 
at very long range ! It would look as if he wished the con- 
quests to take in the Mississippi, and was afraid the govern- 
ment might stop with Florida and Mobile. 

1 Jeffrey's French Dominion, etc., pp. 152-154. 



176 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

^ At all events, this was exactly what happened. George III. 

had in this very year, 1760, ascended the British throne, and 
he wished to rule in fact as well as name. Pitt was in his 
way, and when this minister wanted war with Spain and re- 
jected overtures from France for peace, and thus alienated his 
colleague Newcastle, the king widened the breach, and Pitt 
resigned in 1761. The complaisant Bute was made premier, 
but war with Spain came anyway, resulting in the capture of 
Havana and Cuba by the British fleet. The king abandoned 
Frederick, and in September, 1762, concluded peace. Nego- 
tiations continued for some time as to how much England was 
willing to leave to her rival, but the Treaty of Paris was finally 
made February 10, 1763. 
V By it Canada was confirmed to Great Britain, Florida ceded 
to her in consideration of the retrocession of Cuba and the 
Philippines, and Louisiana east of the Mississippi and north 
of the Iberville rivers also fell to Great Britain, despite pro- 
tests and i^ropositions of France for a buffer Indian country 
between. By a secret treaty the king of France ceded New 
Orleans and all west of the Mississippi to his cousin of Spain. 
Thus old Louisiana was dismembered, and the Mobile district 
was to go to England. Both Rochemore and Kerlerec returned 
to France, and D'Abbadie as director -general had, until the 
Spaniards should come, the powers of both intendant and gov- 
ernor. 

Cession to the foreigner was bitterly regretted. We can well 
imagine how the hearts of his old colonists were to go out to 
Bienville again when, at the age of eighty-six, he appeared with 
their deputy Jean Milhet before the French minister De Choi- 
seul to implore that Louisiana be not cut off from France. 
But they did not even reach the throne. ^ And it wovdd have 
done no good. 

The exemplary prince and promising king had become cor- 
rupted by his own court, and was now the greatest debauchee 
of them all. The vices of Louis XIV., not his virtues, had 
repeated themselves in his great-grandson. And all France 
was in ferment. Now it was intellectual; it might become 
political. Could he but make the royal structure outlast his 
time, never mind the deluge afterwards. As to America, that 
^ King's Bienville, p. 323. 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. Ill 

was far away, — and the Pompadour so near ! What cared 
Louis XV. for Louisiana? He had obtained peace, at all 
events, — never mind the cost ! A pare aux cerfs, was worth 
a dozen Mobiles and New Orleans. The cession was final. 

It was to take some time, however, to make the world-wide 
transfers. New Orleans long did not know of the secret ces- 
sion to Spain, and remained under French rule until 1766, but 
Mobile was surrendered October 20, 1763. As the lilies of 
France descended, a regiment of Highlanders from Pensacola 
entered, it is said, under Colonel Robertson, to the music of 
bagpipes, and a royal salute greeted the British flag as it was 
flung to the breeze.^ The jproces verbal of the transfer was 
signed by De Velle and Fazende for France, and Robert Farmar 
(or Farmer) for England, and was followed by Farmer's pro- 
clamation. The historic name of Fort Conde was changed to 
Fort Charlotte, for the queen of the young king of England. 

The French troops with the ordnance and many of the peo- 
ple sadly withdrew to New Orleans. But the bulk of the inhab- 
itants remained, for they loved the old home even better than the 
old flag, 

^ 2 French's Historical Collection, p. 62. 



PAKT IV. 
THE BRITISH DOMINATION. 

1763-1780. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

BKITON AND INDIAN. 

When by the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, Mobile be- 
came a part of the British possessions in America, it was not as 
a dependency of any of the thirteen colonies which would soon 
become famous. Georgia had, like others, claimed a charter 
from sea to sea, but the Treaty of Paris recognized the middle 
of the Mississippi as the west line of the British possessions. 
And the king curtailed the colonies yet further. By proclama- 
tion of October 7, 1763, he made crown lands of all from the 
Mississippi to the Alleghanies, and established south of the 
line of 31° two new colonies. East Florida was the peninsula, ^ , 
with St. Augustine as capital; West Florida was the country '^'1'^ 
west of this to the Mississippi and Iberville rivers, with Pen- 
sacola as capital, and including Mobile in what was to be known 
as Charlotte County. The northern boundary of West Florida 
was next year shifted northwardly to the line running east and 
west through the mouth of the Yazoo River. These proclama- 
tions were probably, like one named by Adair, published by 
posting on the gate of Fort Charlotte. ^ 

The crown lands extending to Canada were not erected into 
a province, but were reserved nominally for the use of the 
Indians until the further order of the king. This practically 
adopted the French proposition of an Indian buffer country, 
but under English control. 

The first governor of West Florida was George Johnstone, 
who, according to Adair, was much respected by the savages. 
Its military, however, were subject to the orders of the com- 
mander-in-chief at New York, General Thomas Gage, who in 
1763 succeeded Amherst in command of all America, — an 

1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 428, 430 ; Adair's American In- 
dians, p. 369. Much information in this Part IV. has been derived from 
the Ilaldimand Papers at Ottawa, and from an examination made in the 
British Colonial Records at London. 



182 ^ COLONIAL MOBILE. 

arduous position even in time of peace. He had been governor 
of Montreal in 1760. 

The military of West Florida was commanded until the 
spring- of 1767 by Colonel Taybr, and the post at Mobile con- 
sisted at first of the 22d and 34th regiments, which occupied 
the place October 20, 1763. 

Fort Toulouse, up the Alabama River, had been maintained 
by the French as much as a check on the British of the Atlan- 
tic as for trade, and was now, when everything had become 
British, of less importance. Farmer could not spare the men 
to garrison it, but sent James Germany there to keep possession. 
As late as August, 1764, we know from the Haldimand Papers 
that flags were made for the Creeks, and in the next February 
Germany was interpreter to them still. The British could 
have found little of value in the fort, as Lavnoue spiked his 
cannon, broke their trunnions, dismantled the work, and threw 
all the property into the river before withdrawing to Mobile in 
1763. The cannon remained, however, for many years. ^ 

Fort Tombecbe, called by Farmer Fort York, was of more 
value from its nearness to the warlike Chickasaws, and was 
maintained, as Gage later frankly expressed it, for the purpose 
of encouraging the Choctaws and assisting in Indian quarrels. 

Thirty British soldiers under Lieutenant Thomas Ford had 
taken possession November 22, 1763, and Ford reports that he 
found it a strong post, but in need of repairs. We learn from 
the major's contingent account among the Haldimand Papers 
that Farmer paid Captain Chabbert for the French stores left 
there .£40 10s. 8d. There was immediately a draft on all the 
fort supplies, for there was a Choctaw town within musket-shot, 
and the Indians must be placated with presents. This was fol- 
lowing the French policy, and also the order of Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel James Robertson. The bill of £235 Is. 5d. was ultimately 
paid by Farmer. In March of next year there was a fleet of 
"battoes" (bateaux) sent up there from Mobile, and for pilot- 
ing them Anthony Narbonne was paid £3 14s. 8d. H. M. 
S. Stagg had just arrived with supplies for Fort Charlotte, 
and probably some were sent up the river. There was a good 
garden at Tombecbe. 

^ See 1 Pickett's Alabama,-^. 221, for their migration to Montgomery, 
Wetumpka, etc. 



BRITON AND INDIAN. 183 

The next Item paid by Major Farmer on this account Is one 
of X9 14s. to W. Escott In August, 1765, for horse-hire and 
horses lost In carrying Lieutenant Smith, of the 22d regiment, 
to and from Tombecbe, — certainly a moderate charge even 
If only one horse was lost. Fort Tombecbe is not mentioned 
again until the quarrels between Ritchy and Lagardere, two 
officers of the post. In 1766. Adair deplores its precipitate 
abandonment, and says the Indian agent who remained was 
totally unfit to deal. with Red Captain and the other Choc- 
taws. ^ 

Some of the Indians, like the Tensaws and a part of the All- 
bamons, were so attached to the French as to follow them west 
of the Mississippi. Two hundred Tensaws from Mobile were 
established on Bayou Lafourche, and Alibamons will be found 
on the Mississippi. Of the Mobilians, Tohomes, and Apala- 
ches near Mobile we hear no more, and they no doubt retired 
among the Choctaws. Chickasaws, Creeks, and Choctaws re- 
mained, and the "Koosahte" (Coosadas) moved nearer Mobile, 
settling on the east side of the river, twenty -five leagues above 
the city. 2 The British, after some blundering, undertook an / 
even more systematic Indian policy than the French, for they 
now had a larger territory. In 1762, Captain John Stuart (or 
Stewart),^ a survivor of the massacre at Fort Loudoun, had 
been appointed the first Indian Superintendent for the South, 
and he convened at Mobile a great congress of all the tribes 
south of the Ohio River.* This was held in the spring of 1764, 
and resulted In a general pacification and alliance with the Eng- 
lish of all but a few Choctaws and Creeks. As the Indians 
knew little English, the Frenchman Louis Forneret acted as 
Interpreter for 196 days, at 4 shillings 8 pence per day, as we 
learn from Farmer's accounts. There we find also, for this 
year, three entries of beef for use of the Indians, aggregating 
£107, besides some wine. Increase in Farmer's own table ex- 

1 Adair's American Indians, pp. 292, 310. 

2 2 French's Historical Collection, p. 47 ; Adair's American Indians, p. 298. 
There is reason to class the Coosadas and Occhays, whom Romans found 
with them, as Alibamons and not Creeks. 

3 Brownlee's Indian Races, p. 402 ; Meek's Southwest, p. 85. 

^ John Stuart, of Carolina, long acted, and his cousin Charles was deputy * 
at Mobile after the death of Mr. Henderson in 1769, 



184 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

penses, and ,£1554 of presents for tliem paid to Dugald Camp- 
bell, the commissary. Farmer complained that he had to 
entertain five hundred himself at one time. Stuart afterwards 
expended £1200 a year on them at Mobile. 

That fall, probably to some extent in consequence of the In- 
dian pacification. Governor Johnstone, to carry out the aims 
of the home government, issued a glowing description of West 
Florida, designed to attract settlers. ^ Agriculture, timber, 
trade with Central America, were dwelt on, and analogies found 
to Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, Colchos, Palmyra, Amsterdam, Ven- 
ice, and Genoa. "On the whole," we learn, "whether we 
regard the situation or the climate. West Florida bids fair to 
be the emporium as well as the most pleasant part of the New 
World." 

The British must have credit for the first great extinction 
of Indian title in these parts, the beginning of that gradual 
process which was to make West Florida available for white 
settlement, give all the southern country to the whites, and 
culminate in our own century in moving the Choctaws, Creeks, 
and Cherokees to the territory west of the Mississippi. On 
March 26, 1765, was a cession by the Choctaws of land west 
from the Cahaba and Alabama rivers to the Buckatunna, and 
from there southward, including the coast. This important sale 
was consummated at a Congress in Mobile, attended by Governor 
Johnstone, Superintendent Stewart, and twenty-nine chiefs. ^ 
It was probably held in the Indian House, which was this 
spring repaired. Article 5 of this treaty runs as follows: — 

"Article 5. And to prevent all disputes on account of 
encroachments, or supposed encroachments, committed by the 
English inhabitants of this or any of his Majesty's provinces, 
on the lands or hunting-grounds reserved and claimed by the 
Chicaksaw and Choctaw Indians, and that no mistakes, doubts, 
or disputes, may for the future arise thereupon, in considera- 
tion of the great marks of friendship, benevolence, and clemency 
extended to us, the said Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, by 
his Majesty King George the Third, we, the chiefs and head 
warriors, distinguished by great and small medals, and gorgets, 

^ Haldimand Papers, Ottawa. 

2 American State Papers, p. 314, corrected by copy from the official papers 
in the British Record Office, " America and West Indies." 



BRITON AND INDIAN. 185 

and bearing his Majesty's commissions as chiefs and leaders of 
our respective nations, by virtue and in pursuance of the full 
right and power which we now have and are possessed of, have 
agreed, and we do hereby agree, that, for the future, the bound- 
ary be settled by a line extended from Grijsse Point, in the 
Island of Mount Louis, by the course of the western coast of 
Mobile Bay, to the mouth of the eastern branch of Tombecbee 
River, and north by the course of the said river, to the conflu- 
ence of Alibamont and Tombecbee rivers, and afterwards along 
the western bank of Alibamont River to the mouth of Chickia- 
noce River, and from the confluence of Chickianoce and Aliba- 
mont rivers, a straight line to the confluence of Bance and 
Tombecbee rivers; from thence, by a line along the western 
bank of Bance River, till its confluence with the Tallatukpe 
River ; from thence, by a straight line to Tombecbee river, oppo- 
site to Atchalickpe; and from Atchalikpe, by a straight line, 
to the most northerly part of Buckatanne River, and down the 
course of Buckatanne River to its confluence with the river 
Pascagoula, and down by the course of the river Pascagoula, 
within twelve leagues of the seacoast; and thence, by a due 
west line, as far as the Choctaw nation have a right to grant. 

"And the said chiefs, for themselves and their nations, give 
and confirm the property of all the lands contained between 
the above-described lines and the sea, to his Majesty the King 
of Great Britain, 'and his successors, reserving to themselves 
full right and property in all the lands to the northward of said 
lines now possessed by them; and none of his Majesty's white 
subjects shall be permitted to settle on Tombecbee River to the 
northward of the rivulet called Centebonck." 

These boundaries can be identified, although most of the 
names have been changed. The grant begins on Mon Louis 
Island, extends along the coast to what is now the Apalache 
River, and up this, the Tensaw, Mobile, and Alabama rivers 
to the Cahaba, here called the Chickianose River. Thence the 
line runs to the junction of the Black Warrior, called the 
Bance, and the Bigbee, and up the Warrior to a stream near 
Tuskaloosa, whence it runs across country and over the Bigbee 
again at the village of Atchalickpe (Hatchatigbee) to the source 
of the Buckatunna, down which it runs to thirty-six miles from 
the sea, and thence west through all the Choctaw country. 



186 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

This embraces all of the river and coast which has figured in 
this story except Fort Toiilouse, but the treaty contains a 
singular limitation. By forbidding white settlement north of 
the " Centebonck " (now Santabogue or Cintebogue Creek, in 
lower Choctaw County), the treaty practically made that stream 
the northern boundary of the British possessions, with Fort 
Tombecbe as an isolated outpost above. 

According to Adair, the policy of fixing a low scale of prices 
to articles to be sold the savages, and of general licensing of 
traders under bond and security, sanctioned by this treaty, was 
to ruin legitimate traders and permit introduction of so much 
liquor as to injure the Indians. He claims to have lost much 
himself by the new plan of operations. But at least it looked 
plausible, and probably failed because of insufficient supervision. 
Locally it would seem to have benefited Mobile, as the super- 
intendent aimed at supplying traders even for the Chickasaws 
through Mobile, whose navigation, however, Adair — who has 
never a good word for the town — deemed inferior to Charles- 
ton's. The general tariff was 70 per cent, below that of the 
French up the Mississippi. ^ 

The Indians were satisfied, and gave up their French medals 
and commissions, accepting those of the British king. The 
congress lasted from March 26 to April 3, and although they 
often numbered 2000 men, no damage was committed. Rev. 
Mr. Hart read prayers, but next year there was no church 
or parson at Mobile. 

It was in the year of the congress, possibly at that time, 
that Ilooma, or Red Captain, with forty Choctaw warriors, 
charged three hundred Creeks and drove them headlong through 
Mobile into the river. Hoonia alone killed thirteen Ci'ceks, 
even when fighting on his knees, but was slain liimseK by one 
of the retreating foe. On the river-bank, according to tradi- 
tion at the foot of St. Francis Street, the pursuit ceased; for 
these Choctaws could not swim, while in this the Creeks were 
expert.^ This was in the beginning of a six years' war between 
these tribes. 

^ Adair's American Indians, pp. 367, 370, 414. 

2 See Scenes and Setders of Alabama, p. 20, where the flying Indians 
are called Seminoles. Romans' Florida dates this " not above six years 
ago," but he may have written some time before the 1776 imprint of his 
book. 



BRITON AND INDIAN. 187 

Under the French, Mobile, after it ceased to be the capital, 
was still important as controlling the Alabama basin. This 
remained true under the British, and it now acquired also a 
new importance. New Orleans remained French (or Spanish), 
and Mobile now became, especially at first, a base of supplies 
and operations for the British control of the east half of the 
Mississippi valley. 

Several English publications were devoted to the new acqui- 
sitions, but none of them grasped the importance of Mobile 
better than Roberts, — if he does prefix a Cockney "H " to the 
name of the main river. He says : — 

" The Bay of Mobile forms a most noble and spacious harbor, 
running thirty miles north, and six miles broad, to the several 
mouths of the Ilalabama and Chickasaw rivers. It affords very 
good anchorage and is capable of containing the whole British 
navy. 

"The French, perceiving the importance of this place, and 
the advantages that must naturally arise therefrom, erected, 
on the west side of this bay, a strong fort called after the bay. 
This place is now become to us of the utmost consequence, since 
all the country to the eastward of the Mississippi is ceded to us 
by the late treaty of peace. 

"The advantageous situation of this harbor, to the very heart 
of the richest part of the country, is as it were a back door to 
New Orleans, and will ever remain an unmovable check, by 
inevitably cutting off all communication between the river Mis- 
sissippi and Europe, and the French western islands. Yet this 
depends upon the seasonable measures taken by the govern- 
ment to put this country and harbor into a better posture of 
defense, by erecting a fort at its entrance, and sending colonies 
over."i 

Almost on a line to the west of Fort Tombecbe, the British, 
in order to watch the French across the Mississippi River, had 
built at the Natchez Fort Panmure. Lower down, the Iber- 
ville separated West Florida from Spanish Louisiana; and 
making the Iberville navigable, so as to give continuous com- 
munication with the Mississippi, was the constant aim of the 
British. In January, 1765, Farmer paid Lieutenant James 
Campbell, of the 34th regiment, £326 13s. 13d. "towards de- 
1 Roberts' Florida, p. 952, 



188 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

fraying the expenses of clearing the river Iberville," and the 
very next month no less than X863 6s. 8d. was paid Delille 
Dupard for the same purpose. Lieutenant Pittman, later to be 
connected with the great survey of Mobile Bay, on April 8 of 
this year we find mentioned in connection with surveying the 
Iberville. On that day Rochon was paid twenty -two and a half 
pounds for repairing a boat for Pittman "to survey the lakes 
with." Pittman was stationed there, and his verdict was that 
the river had got in worse condition than ever, because the drift 
logs had been cut up only near the Mississippi, and high water 
had blocked up the lower part with this material. ^ 

This lake route was of value not only for watching the 
French and Spanish. Through this, or through the lower 
Mississippi, must pass all communication with the upper val- 
ley, and particularly the fertile Illinois region, which had been, 
under the French, the granary of Louisiana, and in part of 
Canada. Johnstone, therefore, had the Scots Fusiliers build, 
on the site of the workmen's camp, a fort to protect the pas- 
sage. This was the origin of Fort Bute. 

The French had always been powerful in the upper Missis- 
sippi valley, the Illinois, opened by their missionaries, and later 
its trade was contended for by the rival governments of Canada 
and Louisiana. Fort Chai-tres, founded 1718 among the 
Kaskaskias on the Mississippi above the Ohio junction, had 
become the principal post of a district containing 1100 whites, 
besides three hundred negro slaves. Altogether there were 
over two thousand French in the upper valley. ^ 

The Treaty of Paris surrendered all east of the river to the 
English, but the reluctance of the French inhabitants and the 
hostility of the Indians under Pontiac and others made the ces- 
sion at first nominal. Major Loftus, with 400 troops of the 22d 
regiment from Mobile, attempted in 1764 to ascend the Mis- 
sissippi to take possession ; but on March 20 these were driven 
back by Tunica Indians at Davion's Bluff before they had well 
started, with the loss of five killed and four wounded. ^ Part 
of the command then returned by the lake route to Mobile. 
Even the Indian pacification at Mobile was limited to the 

1 Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, pp. 31, 32. 

2 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 268, chap. xxi. 

* Ibid., chap, xxiii. ; Pittmau's Mississippi Settlements, p. 35. 



BRITON AND INDIAN. 189 

southern savages, and taking possession of the Illinois was still 
in the future. An expedition to feel the way was necessary, 
and we read of an unsuccessful one by Lieutenant Fraser from 
Fort Pitt. 

At this time there seems to have been at New Orleans the 
firm of Logan, Terry & Co. They were of assistance when 
English vessels, instead of taking the lake route, ascended from 
the^mouth of the Mississippi, as they had a right to do under 
the treaty. This firm figures largely in the Farmer accounts. 

The first item is a payment on August 22, 1764, to Pousset 
of 16s. 4d. for bunting and making of flags for the Illi- 
nois and Creek Indians. In November we find Hugh Craw- 
ford and Ludow'" Huckle mentioned as having a contract to 
conduct an officer to the Illinois; and Captain John Lind, of 
the schooner Charlotte, as bringing the king's hatecmx from 
the Balize to New Orleans. About the same time Logan, 
Terry & Co. collected a large quantity of Indian goods for a 
new expedition to be undertaken by Lieutenant Ross, their 
bill being no less than £3247 5s. 4|d. 

Unless we are to suppose that Lieutenant John Eoss's party 
was a different one, it would seem that the expedition did not 
leave for the Illinois until early spring, — and it would be 
strange to undertake a northern journey before that season. 
Then in March comes the payment to Messrs. Monsarts & Co. 
of X1405 18s. 8d. more for boats; and to Logan, Terry & Co., 
next month, one fifth as much again on account of "battoes" 
for the -Illinois expedition. This seems extraordinary, unless 
the first set had been destroyed in some way. The Monsarts 
had already been paid in part by skins, as we learn in the curi- 
ous entry of a draft on General Gage for repayment of the 
duty of ahiiost 200 pounds sterling placed by the governor and 
council on these skins when imported into the colony. It is 
possible even yet to imagine the explosion when Gage heard of 
this tax! And on April 1 was paid X397 more in drafts from 
Monsart, met by Farmer through the Mobile house of George 
Ancrum. 

Logan, Terry & Co. had supplied Eoss with a sixteen-pound 
outfit himself, besides two horses for £12, and every now and 
then on his progress he draws on Farmer for some expense. 
Up among the Chickasaws he draws for £103 16s. in favor of 



190 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

the trader John Brown, who seems to have supplied guides from 
there to the Illinois, and this was in addition to the compensa- 
tion of Francis Underwood, who acted as guide and interpreter 
too. Daniel Clark makes presents of forty wampums (costing- 
over <£57) on the way; and Logan, Terry & Co. supply <£350 
of goods to pay the rowers of the bateaux employed by Captain 
Lagauterais for the public presents to the Illinois. These 
goods would seem to have been well protected, for we learn also 
that a barrel of tar from Mobile was used in making tarpaulins. 

The result of this expensive expedition We do not know. But 
it must have been exceedingly satisfactory to the Indians at 
least, and have kept Major Farmer busy paying out British 
gold from his strong-box. 

The final occupation of the Illinois was in the fall of 1765, 
and effected by the operations of Captain Stirling with High- 
landers, who penetrated the Ohio valley from Fort Pitt; while 
Major Farmer shortly afterwards, in December, led the 34th 
regiment up the Mississippi to join him. The French com- 
mandant, St. Ange, then retired across the river to the village 
of St. Louis, and the English entered Fort Chartres.^ 

With this the British occupation of the Mississippi basin was 
completed. 

1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 457. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 

Colonel William Taylor was the commanding officer of 
the province, stationed at Pensacola. He seems to have drawn 
some of his supplies from Mobile. William Irving was con- 
tractor at Mobile, and frequently forwarded him fowl and other 
things, and at one time we find him soliciting a continuance in 
his agency. One D. Clark (deputy collector of customs in 1765) 
writes the general from there concerning his wood contract ; and 
later we find Elias Durnford furnishing bark for barracks, and 
sending over cattle from Mobile. Favre was interpreter to the 
Indians. In fact Mobile, on account largely of its rivers and 
bay, was, until its healthfulness became questioned, of much 
service to the army, especially during the uncertainty of the 
long war which now began between the Creeks and Choctaws. 

Major Farmer was in command at Mobile for a number of 
years. At first he was much embarrassed for money, for the 
merchants were so unused to the change of flag that they would 
not take his bills on New York. He was compelled to accom- 
modate himself, most unwillingly, to the French-Indian policy 
and keep open house for twenty or thirty every day, — a vile 
custom, he declares. 

As to the inhaliitants, he construed the treaty strictly, and 
recognized only formal grants of land, and not the possessory 
right so common. He gave but three months' shrift to those 
inhabitants who preferred emigration to taking the oath of al- 
legiance to King George. 1 This led to a petition by them to 
the home government, with favorable result. Farmer found 
ninety-eight French families, and of these about forty re- 
mained, withdrawing largely to their river and bay homes, and 
there raising cattle. Lieutenant McLellan was sent to New 
Orleans to induce the French to move to Mobile and Pensacola, 
but in this he was unsuccessful. Pierre Rochon, who was to 
^ 2 Gayarre's Louisiana, pp. 100, 101. 



192 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

be the contractor that did most of the fort repairs, was of the 
Mobile French who remained. 

For a careful examination was made by the new owners of 
Fort Charlotte (Conde), and a report dated November 30, 1763, 
showed many repairs to be necessary. AU woodwork was old, 
glasses gone, the brickwork overgrown with grass, bake-houses 
and hospital in need of attention. The embarkation of French 
cannon and disembarkation of the English effectually ruined 
the old wharf. Evidently the French had for several years 
taken little care of what they did not expect to keep. The 
British claimed the French cannon, but D'Abbadie at New 
Orleans curtly refused to surrender them, as they were not fix- 
ures.^ 

The British set resolutely to work, and shortly there was great 
improvement. New platforms were laid for the cannon; an- 
other flagstaff erected; the brick casemates repaired; the bar- 
racks, both within and without the fort, put in order; the ovens 
of the bake-house made serviceable; and the palisades, which 
seem then to have surrounded the officers' square (Government 
to Conti) and connected it with the fort, were renewed, lathed, 
and spiked. In the next July thirty-seven loads of scaffold 
poles were brought for the bake-house repairs. Adair speaks 
of the garrison prison as a "black-hole," even after these im- 
provements in the fort, and mentions the imprisonment there 
of a local trader whom a "Choktah" accused of selling him a 
cracked brass kettle.^ This instance of British justice may be 
supplemented by the official record of a white found guilty of 
the murder of an Indian in 1765. Next year there was still no 
secure "gaol," but later we find an allowance for a negro to 
keep one. Chimneys and five wells were also repaired, the 
officers' guard-room in the fort floored, and, like their bar- 
racks, whitewashed, besides repairs to roofs and sashes. An 
addition of six rooms to these quarters was in course of con- 
struction, besides partition, "two cupboards and skirtin boards 
put around some of the officers' rooms." "The late Com* 
house " had four new floors and one repaired, beside hearths, 
windows, and doors put in order. The smith shop, too, had a 
new roof and the bellows mended ; and the hospital had repairs 
to gallery, roof, hf^-^rths, and well. 

^ 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. 97. 

2 Adair's American Indians, p. 287. 



MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 193 

The receipt of Pierre Eoclion of April 9, for pajnnent for all 
this labor, has also come dowu in the Ilaldimaiul Papers. It 
states that he did the work hy order of ]Slajor Farmer, of the 
34th regiment, and Farmer's account shows that Rochon re- 
ceived in all £2232. A certificate dated April 13, of officers 
of the 34th and 22d regiments, shows that the work was satis- 
factory. 

The major complains that the French claimed everything 
outside the fort to be private property, the commandant's house 
included. The new-comers were bound to respect private pro- 
perty, and so we find Farmer renting from :Mme. Grondel the 
hospital. On September 10, 1764, he bought it for £186 13s. 
4d. The deed was at first taken to Farmer individually, but 
this was afterwards corrected. AVe learn later that firewood 
for the hospital cost fo^ r dollars per cord. 

In May he had alre-uh purchased of J. B. Rousseve for use 
of the Indian interpreter another house and two lots, for which 
he paid £93 6s. 8d., or "four hundred dollars." The place 
Farmer boiight in January of next year, as a lodging for arti- 
ficers brought out from New York for government work, was a 
house of wood and clay covered with bark. J. C. ISIontal had 
sold it to Uv. Maloney, an English resident, for 430 ''hard 
dollars," part on time. ^ It may be on this account that Mr. 
James Ilendrie, deputv vendue master, on July 25, 1764, cer- 
tified that he had sold the place at public vendue, by order of 
the commandant, to :SIr. Hugh Kennedy, for 8266. In the next 
January, Hugh Kennedy Hoy, presumably the same man, sold 
it to ^lajor Farmer for the use of his jSIajesty. The descrip- 
tion of this lot of 12:V by 25 toises, fronting the river, bounds 
it on the one side by the house of Mr. George Ancrum, mer- 
chant, "on the other side making the corner of a street," prob- 
ably Conti. The artificers did much work, for we know that 
Farmer paid them £537, if not more. 

Major Farmer was, at the time of the surrender of :Mobile, 
fortv-five years of age. He was an interesting character. He 
had'^oceasion to correspond officially with Aubry, the French 
governor, who had succeeded in 1765 on the death of D'Abba- 
die at New Orleans, and we have Aubry's impression of hun in 
a dispatch to the home government : — 

"This governor of Mobile is an extraordinary man. As he 



194 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

knows that I speak English, he occasionally writes to me in 
verse. He sjaeaks to me of Francis I. and Charles V. He 
compares Pontiak, an Indian chief, to Mithridates ; he says 
that he goes to bed with Montesquieu. When there occur 
some petty difficulties between the inhabitants of New Orleans 
and Mobile, he quotes to me from the Magna Charta and the 
laws of Great Britain. It is said that the English ministry 
sent him to Mobile to get rid of him, because he was one of 
the hottest in the opposition. He pays me handsome compli- 
ments, which I duly return to him, and, upon the whole, he is 
a man of parts, but a dangerous neighbor, against whom it is 
well to be on one's guard." ^ 

The major acquired from the Indians a piece of land facing 
the bay and extending over towards Pensacola, and from the 
government, at some time, Farmer's Island and his residence 
at what is the northeast corner of Ciovp^/nment and St. Eman- 
uel. This was his home until he moved over to the Tensaw 
River at modern Stockton. 

In the fall of 1766 two traders, Goodwin and Davis, were 
murdered in the Choctaw country. The Nation disclaimed the 
acts, and tried to arrest the offenders. In fact, they sometimes 
put too much confidence in Indian traders ; and it was in this 
year that the distinguished Choctaw "Minggo Humma Echeto " 
was with a number of warriors cut to pieces by the Creeks whom 
Englishmen had put on their guard. ^ But there was general 
uneasiness in exposed places, and, on the eastern shore of Mo- 
bile Bay, some apprehension also from the Creeks. We find 
F. Pousset in 1766 suggesting a fort over there, and the gov- 
ernor and council requested Colonel Tajdor that it be large 
enough for thirty men and two officers. We do not know 
whether this was the flag-maker of two years before, but he 
probably was the Pousset who was later member of the colonial 
supreme court. 

Pousset says he has consulted the inhabitants, and they agree 
"that a small post, somewhere above the Red Cliff near to Mr. 
Genty's, would be of great advantage to them, that whenever 
apprehensive of an Indian war they will leave their present 
habitation and settle themselves for the time being (with per- 

^ 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. 124. 
2 Adair's American Indians, p. 312. 



MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 195 

mission of the governor and council) as near as possible to- 
gether on the lands from Ge[nty's] to Fish River, which with 
the Bay of Mobile forms a point of [land] of about ten leagues 
in length and four in breadth. This would afford sufficient 
pasture for all their cattle for a considerable [time], which they 
would drive there together and protect them. They would pro- 
pose to go out alternately in small parties and leave their wives, 
children and slaves under the protection of the fort. Thus 
they think they could cover themselves safely during a Creek 
war, and be commodiously situated for providing Pensacola with 
provisions. According to the information I have received, 
there are from the highest to the lowest, on the east side of the 
Bay of Mobile, seventeen plantations, thirty-nine white men 
who can bear arms, thirty-two negroes of which twenty-nine 
are men grown, twenty-one negro women and children. In 
all, 124 souls and 2280 head of cattle. I hear they do not 
want arms."^ This project was not to be carried out, how- 
ever, for several years. 

It may be that Gage's disapproval of more posts, as ex- 
pressed in his letter of August 11 to Taylor, had something to 
do with this ; perhaps also sickness among the Mobile garrison, 
which led that summer to an encampment on Dauphine Island. 

Gage's opposition to distant posts was such that he not only 
wished to abandon the Mississippi forts, but even Mobile itself, 
and draw the force in West Florida to Pensacola. He evi- 
dently had doubts about all the province. "The whole of the 
trade in those parts," he says, "consists of skins only; the furs 
come from above. You will know if the skin trade is of much 
value. Many people at home think not, and that it does not 
pay the expenses of Mobile and Pensacola." 

This letter is also noticeable for the vigorous denunciation of 
Governor Johnstone's idea that he was supreme over the mili- 
tary as well as the civil departments. The commander-in-chief 
instructs Taylor to recognize no such claim. The opinion of 
Attorney-General Arthur Gordon that control of his Majesty's 
land was vested in the governor would hardly be contested, 
except as a precedent later for a claim to own the very forts. 
The dispute even affected the distribution of surgeons when, 
in the fall of 1766, Mobile was unhealthful. 
^ Haldimand Papers, Ottawa. 



196 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

The dissension datoJ back a year at least, when nineteen 
officers at Mobile signed a memorial against the governor, 
■which Gage forwarded to Halifax at court. Farmer had thor- 
oiighly supported Gage, and tlms incurred Johnstone's enmity 
and was now to feel it. Charges were made against the major 
of embezzlement, and a court martial was called for. Gage 
took up tlie matter, and on September 29, 17G6, ordered a trial, 
sending the articles of accusation to Taylor, with direction to 
give a eopy to Johnstone. 

The articles read as follows and are serious enough : — 

"Articles of accusation against ^lajor Farmer of Ilis ]Ma- 
jesty's 34th regiment on which he is hereby ordered to be tryed 
at Pensaeola or ^lobile, as shall be found most convenient, as 
soon as a General Court ^lartial can be assembled for that 
purpose. 

"For sending flour belonging to the King to New Orleans, 
and selling or attempting to sell it there, by means of one Pal- 
laehio, a Jew. 

"For selling tlie Fort of Tombeckbee to Mr. Terry, a mer- 
chant. 

"For misapplication of ten thousand pounds said to be 
expended on Indian presents, and on the Fortiiications. 

"For making a job of the Publick service, in the operation 
of the Iberville. 

" For turning in a different channel the monies, which should 
have been expended on the Barracks, so that the officers and 
soldiers lived in a miserable condition. 

'*For insisting to charge five bitts p. barrel for lime, which 
could be made for three bitts and dividing the profits with the 
Engineer. 

"For desiring the Engineer to bear a man extraordinary 
upon the works at three shillings, P. Diem: and to charge a 
laboring negro belonging to him the jSIajor at three shillings 
more, both which was done. 

''For employing the King's boat to his o\sni emolument, and 
dividing the profits with the sailors." 

In this may be some reference to the major's boat the Lit- 
tle Bob. in which during 1705 he sent beef and flour to New 
Orleans for the Illinois expedition. She brought back five 
barrels of claret at night and ]nit them on the schooner Char- 
lotte. For this she was seized by Collector Clark. 



MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 197 

We find the names of Terry and of Pallachio in Farmer's 
accounts, and also items relative to large quantities of wood 
for lime-kilns Tprobaldy up the riverj, hut nothing criminat- 
ing. He handled in the two years in question something over 
£15,000. The trial lasted several years, and the dispute be- 
tween civil and military departments meantime fills volumes of 
British records with complaints and counter-charges. 

By a coincidence, the year of the Farmer articles was that 
marking the birth of the girl who was to become Mrs. Ilollin- 
ger and live a long and honored life in Mobile. The inscrip- 
tion on her tomb in the '' Old Graveyard " dates from 1830, and 
recites the changes of flag and the growth of her native city 
from her birth seventy years Ijefore. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 

The brave and chivalrous Bouquet, famous for liis energy in 
the subjection of the Indians of western Pennsylvania in Pon- 
tiac's war, succeeded Taylor in command of West Florida, 
but he died shortly after his arrival at Pensacola. The story 
goes that while he was absent on duty his fiancee, Miss Wil- 
ling, of Philadelphia, married another man, and that the sol- 
dier grieved himself to death. His brick tomb was on the 
shore of Pensacola Bay, but has now disappeared, washed away 
bv the waves. ^ Frederick Haldimand succeeded Bouquet. 

Colonel William Taylor did not leave for his new post at St. 
Augustine until after Haldimand 's arrival, but this general 
found everything in confusion. He set manfully about bring- 
ing order out of the chaos. ^ 

His report to General Gage of April 31, 1767, says he was 
thinking of building a new road to Mobile. At Pensacola the 
water was bad, and he was issuing rum to the men at the doc- 
tor's suggestion, — a plan of which Gage disapproved. In- 
stead of rum, spruce beer was to be manufactured. 

Haldimand found the laws of the province an extraordinary 
compound ; but this was the fault of his government in substi- 
tuting English for the civil law where most of the people were 
French or Spanish. Gage was regretting that cattle were 
allowed to be taken from the country west of Mobile to Louisi- 

^ Campbell's Colonial Florida, p. 71. 

- Frederick Haldimand was a Swiss, an officer of note in the British ser- 
vice. He was a methodical man and kept almost everything, leaving his 
collection at his death to a nephew. On the death of this gentleman in 
1858 these papers were bequeathed to the British Mnseum, where they still 
remain. Haldimand after his service in the South was governor of Canada, 
and for this reason the Canadian government has, through the energy of 
Mr. Douglas Brymner, their archivist, had the whole collection copied, and 
thus made accessible in America. 



IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 199 

ana, an act soon made unlawful, while Haldimand was scheming 
to get the French to come over the Mississippi and Iberville 
rivers into the Mobile country. The cession to Spain had at 
last been made public, and the Spanish governor, Don UUoa, 
had arrived at New Orleans March 5, 1766. Discontent pre- 
vailed and was to culminate in revolution. ^ 

Meanwhile Haldimand reports that the advantages of Florida 
had been exaggerated, and that he did not hope much from 
Spanish commerce; in fact, he did not see how all the past 
and future expenses could be made up to the nation. He 
rather favored the withdrawal of the troops, although this would 
be opposed from personal interests. Lieutenant - Governor 
Browne, in his reports, declares the trade to be large, including 
150 hogsheads of peltry annually from Mobile alone, besides 
much else. Haldimand says the trade was small, and chiefly 
confined to the military and persons employed by the govern- 
ment.2 

One important factor in commerce was the pilot. The first 
one was Samuel Carr, who lived on Dauphine Island. It seems 
the island had been in whole or part granted him, but he cut 
down the timber and killed the cattle to such an extent that the 
governor and council moved him over to Mobile Point. That 
was to be his headquarters, and a house was ordered built 
there. He was succeeded in 1768 by Captain Richard Harley, 
whose salary was X50. 

The fort at Tombecbe was abandoned in January, 1768, in 
one of the severest winters on record, and the garrison brought 
to Mobile. Lieutenant Ritchie was left to settle the accounts 
of the post. Haldimand liked Johnstone as little as did the 
other military men, and writes Gage he thinks the governor 
and his friends wanted posts maintained for their own benefit. 
The grants of land, too, were extraordinary. The general 
retained three square miles around the forts, for otherwise the 
council would have made grants up to the very glacis. But 

^ 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, pp. 147, 205. 

^ It at least needed the annual \4sit of a vessel of 200 tons, filled with 
British manufactures and carrying back skins to London. The custom- 
house fees, however, were heavy, being sometimes half the freight of ordi- 
nary boats, and, while ships drawing thirteen feet could cross the bar, sev- 
eral feet less was the depth at the town 



200 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

this can hardly refer to Mobile, where the fort always had been 
in the midst of a town. The grants by the governor to a field 
officer might be 5000 acres, and so on down, until a private 
man could get sixty acres. ^ 

Johnstone left that spring, but was succeeded ad interim by 
the lieutenant-governor, Montford Browne, equally a i^crsona 
noil grata. It was infectious, — Taylor had the same trouble 
with Governor Grant in East Florida. And meantime jNIajor 
Farmer's court martial was progressing as far as the evidence 
was procurable, but witnesses on both sides were scattered. 
Farmer made charges, too, against Lieutenant Pittman. 

Pittman had already in February surveyed Mobile Kiver by 
Haldimand's order; and shortly afterwards the general gives 
direction to Elias Durnford, the provincial engineer, to make 
a survey of , the bay to join on to and continue Pittnian's work. 
This survey is the most important act of the British occupa- 
tion which has come down to us, and we owe it to llaldimand. 
It seems that Gould had done some of the work, but Durnford 
was to do tlie most. 

On !March 10 Durnford writes llaldimand from INIobile 
that he had since his arrival been making plans for officers' and 
soldiers' barracks in the square (which needed bedsteads for 
one thing), but that when the weather became settled he would 
begin the survey on the east side of this bay, so as to meet those 
of Pittman and Gould. Durnford had a plantation on the east- 
ern shore near INIontrose, and, while surveying about five miles 
below there, he was painfully wounded in the left thigh by the 
accidental discharge of a gun loaded with duck-shot, which tem- 
porarily laid him up. 

llaldimand in a letter of the 18th said that he would not 
do anything more in the way of repairs to the barracks, and 
directed Durnford instead to lay out some healthy place at Red 
Cliff which would acconnnodate about two hundred men of the 
IMobile gari'ison, should the summer be unhealthy. This, it 
will be recollected, was the spot where Pousset some years be- 
fore had wished to have a fort. Eemembering 'the propensity 
of the governors for granting lands, Haldimand directs Durn- 
ford to reserve enough ground around the new post to supply 
sin-ings and firewood. Haldimand adds that he has ordered 

1 See Report of Senate Committee on Private Land Claims, June 13, 1840. 



IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 201 

Aikman, the Mobile commandant, to furnish such men as 
Durnford would need in this work, whicli was to include also 
cutting and hauling logs for the larger buildings. The trees 
were to be barked, as much, no doubt, to use the bark for the 
huts as anything else. In this work one Frenchman could 
direct twenty soldiers. Unless he has liochon in mind in 
particular, it would seem therefore that Haldimand has a high 
opinion of the French in general. As soon as Durnford has 
finished at lied Cliff he is to go on with the survey of the bay, 
keeping at it as long as his presence was not needed in Pensa- 
cola "to represent the office of Chief Justice with Messrs. Ilodge 
and Pousset." From which it would seem that Durnford was 
of varied accomplishments, and the first of the line of distin- 
guished lawyers resident near Montrose. 

Durnford, on the 21st of March at Mobile, acknowledged this 
letter, received by the hands of Mr. Waugh, probably the 
commissary. This correspondence, conducted in French by 
the general, in English by the surveyor, throws side lights on 
affairs. Haldimand orders fifteen barrels of Indian corn (hie 
(T Inde) and "chappons and canards" (capons and ducks). 
Durnford sends twenty-four barrels of Indian corn by Mr. 
Jones' sloop, besides twelve previously sent. Fowls or duck 
were not to be had right then, but would be sent if found in the 
course of the survey. Aikman had some to be sent "to you, 
Sir, by this opportunity." Haldimand we find returning his 
compliments to Rochon with thanks for the trees and oranges 
which he had had the goodness to send. 

While the important survey was progressing here, however. 
General Gage at New York was preparing to withdraw all but 
three companies of the two regiments heretofore kept in West 
Florida. By letter of June 27 this determination was com- 
municated to the acting governor, Browne, and it threw the 
province into consternation. The troops were to be taken to 
St. Augustine. xVlready, indeed, George Bryn had in March 
brought the garrison on the Iberville down to New Orleans and 
thence across to Mobile, getting also some of the deserters who 
every now and then escaped to New Orleans. 

In July there was promise of moderation in the factional 
disputes of the province in consequence of the arrival in Pensa- 
cola of ex-Chief Justice Clifton, Attorney- General Wegg, and 



202 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

others. They seem to have brought the news of the appoint- 
ment of Elliott as the new governor. The arrangements for 
moving the troops went on all summer, and shopkeejjers and 
others at Pensacola held indignation meetings, and drew an 
address of the king praying for protection to this "Emporium 
of the West." Mobile had even more reason for alarm, since 
only the preceding spring a Choctaw conspiracy to massacre 
the inhabitants had been frustrated. 

About this time the founder of Mobile died at Paris. He 
was buried in Montmartre. Mobile, as the baptismal record 
shows, was still essentially French, but so quiet had Bienville 
lately lived that it is doubtful if they even heard there of his 
death. 

In November, Lieutenant Nugent with a detachment of the 
31st relieved Farmer of the 21st, who marched to Pensacola, 
and next month the bulk of the stores and field artillery were 
taken away. Haldimand himself came to Mobile to make the 
final arrangements. 

It may also be that he was here to keep a weather-eye on the 
French revolution over in Louisiana. The Spanish governor 
had not brought many troops, relying upon the French soldiers 
under Aubry, who were still retained but were paid by Spain. 
The amiable Ulloa had never been popular, nor had his beauti- 
ful but distant lady; and on October 29, 1768, the superior 
council at New Orleans had taken upon itself to expel him and 
hoist the French flag. The Spanish officials took refuge on 
their frioate and shortly afterwards sailed away, to the delight 
of the Louisianians, who now sought again the rule of Louis 
the Well Beloved. 

While the many French at Mobile no doubt shared this love 
for old France, no effort was made at revolution. They realized 
that the English were very different masters. 

In August, 1768, the court martial on Major Farmer had at 
last been concluded and the papers submitted to the king. The 
general-in-chief , in notifying Farmer, remarked that he could 
say nothing until the result was known ; but in October the news 
came that his Majesty approved of the court martial acquitting 
the major. We can readily imagine the joy of the whole 
southern detachment at this victory over Governor Johnstone. 

The major seems at the time of this trial to have withdrawn 



IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 203 

from the active service, but we find him in 1769 recommended 
by the French to succeed Governor Browne. His family con- 
sisted of his wife Mary and five children, of whom Elisabeth 
Mary will meet us later. Through her marriage with Louis 
Alexandre de Vauxbercy, the Farmer blood has survived until 
the present day. 

Even after his retirement, Major Farmer was in frequent 
demand for information as to Mobile matters. In January, 
1769, for instance, Haldimand corresjoonded with hun as to the 
house of Mr. Socie, taken possession of in 1763 as government 
property, probably up by the warehouse, and therefore supposed 
to belong to it. Farmer believed the private claim now set up 
to be fraudulent, but finally, in February, the house was surren- 
dered by Nugent to Mme. de Socie on Plaldimand's order. Hal- 
dimand did not give the order until the lieutenant-governor had 
made application, and the attorney-general had advised that it 
was private property. 

When on the point of leaving Pensacola for St. Augustine 
in March, Haldimand wrote a letter to the expected governor, 
regretting not meeting him. But it is uncertain that Governor 
Elliott arrived alive. He had been reluctant to come at all, 
and seems to have committed suicide at sea, or shortly after his 
arrival, for reasons unknown, and Du^rnford, writing from Pen- 
sacola to Haldimand on May 16, tells of the funeral. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

SICICNESS. 

A PECULIAR feature of the British tenure of Mobile was the 
recurring mortality every summer among the troops. The first 
of it was something like a plague among officers at a general 
court martial in the fall of 1764. All were taken and three 
died, and even shipmasters also suffered. 

Next summer the 21st regiment relieved the 22d at Mobile 
and suffered much fi'om fever. Their surgeon (Dr. Lorimer) 
attributed it to bringing unacclimated troops at so unseasonable 
a time, which was done despite his protest. It amounted to an 
epidemic. 

The British foreign office thought the situation better in 
1766, but if so it was because so many of the 21st were absent, 
and we know there was an encampment on Dauphine Island. 
A memorial from the inhabitants showed that three officers 
were dead and eleven absent, besides the deputy commissary of 
stores, the fort adjutant and barrack master, the chaplain, sur- 
geon, minister, and schoolmaster, who were also absent from 
Mobile. The minister was Mr. Hart still, but early next year 
he resigned. He gave as reasons that he had no church build- 
ing, parsonage, nor hope of promotion to chaplainship of the 
fort, and found it impossible to support his family on so incon- 
siderable a salary in a country where the expense of living was 
so extravagant.^ 

In 1767, Haldimand's report of April 31 dwells on the 
unhealthy condition of Mobile, where fevers were already pre- 

^ In 1768-69 there is an allowance in the British civil list of £100 for 
minister's salary, and £25 for that of a schoolmaster at Mobile. We learn 
from Von Eelking (^Deutsche HUlfstruppen in nordamerikaniscTien Befrei- 
ungskriege, p. 139) that there was a minister also in 1779, the only one in the 
province. This was William Gordon, who acted from 1770 (at latest) all 
through the British period. He celebrated service also at Pensacola some- 
times. 



SICKNESS. 205 

valent. The next year there were fifteen deaths in June, leav- 
ing- but two officers fit for service. 

This continued unhealthfuhiess was remarkable, for the 
French had had no such trouble. Haldimand gets at the root 
of the matter when he says the country is as healthy as any 
southern colony, and that temperate men have nothing to fear. 
Added to imprudence was the lack of medicine for the sick and 
the want of proper hospital accommodation. Surgeon Gray in 
August wrote, that, despite the increasing sickness and danger 
of "pvitrid fever," he had not the money to buy medicine. On 
the 21st of August, 1768, directions were sent Captain Stewart, 
commanding at Mobile, to order on board the Ledia upon her 
arrival all baggage, the sick, some officers and men ; and Cap- 
tain Brass of that sloop and Chambers of the Jenny were sent 
to Mobile to receive them. This consumed some time, but by 
the middle of September the soldiers — or rather this hospital, 
as Haldimand expresses it — were taken by sea to Pensacola. 
Four died even on the passage. Twenty-five men with officers, 
under Lieutenant Farmer, were all that were left as a garrison. 
Those who did not go by sea marched over by land. Fort 
Charlotte held fewer men than at any time since it was built. 

Next year Haldimand detailed Lorimer to study the disorders 
at Mobile. He was to keep a journal and report precautions 
to be observed by troops and new settlers, "Mobile river being 
the most fertile and promising from its advantageous situation 
to be early settled." He desired Lorimer to impart to the new 
settlers any discoveries tending to preserve health, "by which 
means the credit of that place may in short time be restored 
from the bad report it hath lately lain under." ^ 

Lorimer was duly assigned quarters in the garrison and spent 
the next six months stii dying the subject, being facilitated 
by Captain Crofton of the 31st regiment, whom Haldimand in 
February had put in command at Mobile. 

In 1769, the garrison remained in the fort and connected 
square, and even by May the fevers had already set in. Dr. 
J. Lorimer, in a letter to Haldimand on the 30th, hinted that 
he would like Dr. Brown, of Pensacola, to exchange with him. 
He had given up his own room to the sick, but complains it 

^ Romans' Florida, p. 244, mentions " locked jaw " as also frequent at 
Mobile. 



206 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

will all be in vain if money is not allowed for what is necessary 
for tlieir recovery. By July the detachment was very sickly, 
and this continued all summer. 

Lorimer's report in December is as follows: — 

"There were scarce any sick until the month of June. The 
bilious, remitting and intermitting fevers then set in, and con- 
tinued by repeated relapses throughout the months of July, 
August, and September. In the beginning of this last month 
there were out of the small party stationed at Mobile twenty- 
two men sick, that is about two thirds of the whole. At the 
approach of the cold weather, the fevers abated, and they then 
fell into fluxes, dropsias, and cachexies. . . . 

"By the journal which I kept of the heat at Mobile it does 
not appear materially to differ [from that] at Pensacola, the 
thermometer rose [during] the month of April to the 28th of 
June when it was at eighty -eight degrees of farenheit scale, 
and I do not find that it has been above ninety this year, which 
may be reckoned moderate; though till about the latter end 
of September the heat continued the same as in July and 
August. . . . 

"At Mobile the acid in the air is not more abundant than at 
Pensacola; iron and steel is therefore alike liable to rust at 
either of these places, but the moisture and damp at Mobile are 
very considerable, as I have found by several experiments. 
Nay this is evident from viewing the sun iu the evenings, which 
about five o'clock begins to be a deeper hue and before he sets is 
nearly of the color of claret. If one leaves off his shoes for one 
day they are quite mouldy, and in the garrison or square the 
hardest and best polished wood will gather mouldiness in a short 
time. From the wells at Mobile they can only draw what we 
call hard water, except it is after a considerable rain ; and the 
river contains innumerable impurities. . . . 

"As to the situation of Mobile you very well know, that from 
the east to the north of it, is entirely swamps and marshes, for 
as far or even farther than the eye can reach. From the north 
point round by the west and to the south it is inclosed with 
pine trees and thickets, and from the south to the east is the 
bay; though even in that direction some small islands and 
marshy points are interposed before the town. The ground 
upon which the town stands is as low or even lower than any 



SICKNESS. 207 

thereabout, and the fort is situated on the very lowest spot in 
the town. . . . There are too many obstacles now in the way, 
to think of removing it, though there might be several amend- 
ments made in the present situation, such as cutting down the 
woods, particularly towards the Choctaw point, so that from the 
ramparts of the fort the whole bay might be seen from side to 
side. The summer sun would then dry up the marshes about 
that point. The low houses in the fort should be converted 
into stores, and a second story raised upon them would overlook 
the walls and serve for barracks. 

"The whole parade might be covered with green sod and the 
ramparts with the same. The outside of the glacis should be 
cleared, so as to prevent the water from stagnating there, and 
the earth taken from thence may be laid upon the broken parts 
of the glacis ; thus the soldiers would live in a more cool, airy 
and healthy situation, at least than [that] of the people in town; 
but at present either in the fort or in the officers square it is as 
close and suffocating as if they were put into a great oven. 
If the wood is cut and cleared away a kind of bank will be 
found to run all along from the south side of the fort, almost to 
Mr. Stuarts house on the Choctaw plantation. The people 
then should be encouraged to take uj) lots of that ground about 
one acre each, under the condition of keej)ing the lower parts 
well drained, and the higher lands clear of trees or brushwood. 
They should build their houses in one row along the top of this 
bank, leaving a street of at least one hundred feet broad to be 
crossed by a small lane between every two lots. If the three 
mile creek was then made to run through the town according 
to a plan which was long ago proposed and for a moderate sum 
would have been executed, we might expect to see Mobile a 
very comfortable place to live in all the year round. . . . 

" Much has been said concerning a post on the east side of 
the bay; and for that purpose the Cliffs are generally fixed 
upon. They are high and some runs of good water are near 
them; but such a situation would be extremely inconvenient on 
many accounts. As their situation is in the bite of the bay, 
they are entirely deprived of the southern breeze by the point 
below Mr. Wigg's plantation. There is however a bluff be- 
tween Mr. Durnford's and the French village where the land is 
sufficiently high, and there are just by it on both sides some 



208 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

springs and small rivulets of the finest water I have seen in the 
country; and by a little cutting and clearing this point might 
be rendered more open to the breezes than any on the bay ; and 
the building a blockhouse and establishing a village there 
would afford the best retreat for those that were attacked with 
the country diseases at Mobile. But to return; the close and 
marshy situation of Mobile at present is evidently the cause of 
these fevers, and the want of some little comfort and conven- 
iences which are indispensably necessary to the recovery of the 
sick, is the occasion of their frequent relapses. I well know 
that this is the most disagreeable part of my subject, my duty 
obliges me to bear witness against the mode prescribed by you 
in that behalf. For though the commanding officers both at 
Pensacola and Mobile have always shown the utmost readiness 
to use any means in their power by which the sick could be 
benefited; yet while nothing besides the j)oor remaining pit- 
tance of the soldiers' subsistence is allowed, it will never do." 
The inhabitants, he says, suffer less because less confined and 
they have better food. 

"Another very considerable cause of sickness, though little 
expected, arises from the small number of men in that garri- 
son ; for when there are only ten or twelve men fit to do duty, 
if any one misses the ague for three or four days, he is very 
naturally put on guard, and this is the occasion of a certain 
relapse. 

"The small number of troops Is likewise productive of an- 
other inconvenience, viz., that when fresh meat is allowed, they 
cannot consume a whole bullock in one day, and in the summer 
it -will not keep till the next." ^ 

There is nothing to indicate that any of these suggested im- 
provements were carried out. The sickness in the garrison for 
several years had given the place a bad name. Adair in 1775 
calls it "that graveyard for Britons," and a "black trifle." 
Romans states next year that the epidemic of 1765 entirely 
ruined the place; and the preface to Pittman's book sa3^s the 
swamps, dead fish in the marsh opposite the town, and the 
absence of wholesome water within a mile and a half, caused 
almost as much suffering in that year to the unacclimated 
21st regiment at Mobile as the 31st experienced at Pensacola. 
^ Haldimand Papers, B., vol. xv. p. 78. 



SICKNESS. 209 

A number of people left from time to time, and few new set- 
tlers came, despite the rivers and soil praised by Pittman.^ 

New Orleans was troubled, but in a different way. Spain 
moved slowly perhaps, but deliberately. Her royal advisers 
debated what should be done with revolted Louisiana, and de- 
termined not to permit such a precedent to stand. Alexander 
O'Reilly, an Irishman in Spanish service, was sent out with an 
overwhelming force, and on August 18, 1769, landed at New 
Orleans. No resistance was offered; in fact O'Reilly was well 
received. He took firm possession, reorganized the govern- 
ment, and then had the chief revolutionists tried. On October 
25 the talented Lafreniere, Pierre Marquis, Joseph Milhet, 
J. B. Noyan, and Pierre Caresse were shot by a platoon of 
grenadiers, Jeannot, the negro hangman, having struck off his 
own arm to avoid acting. ^ 

The revolutionists had once planned a republic under the 
protection of Great Britain, but the British officials in West 
Florida did not encourage it. Now the British government be- 
came uneasy at the O'Reilly expedition, and determined to send 
the troops back to the old posts in West Florida to be ready 
for any emergency. Haldimand's opinion was, that the best 
defense of West Florida was by the fleet; and he thought the 
approach to the Mississippi through the Iberville River, which 
was dry in summer, not practicable. But jolans now were all 
changed. Gage in February, 1770, directs him to return to 
Pensacola to meet the 16th regiment, and distribute them 
between that place and Mobile. 

By the middle of March the troops had reached Pensacola, 
and Haldimand arrived about a month later. The whole pro- 
vince rejoiced over the return of the military. 

They had been gone for a year, and much had taken place. 
The disorders following Governor Elliott's death had been tem- 
porary, and the only effect of the Spanish severity at New Or- 
leans was to make it likely that many French would leave there 
for Mobile. Governor Browne usually resided at Mobile, and 
was constantly urging on the home government to intercept 
some of the Mississippi River Indian trade by building a road 

^ American Indians, pp. 310, 456 ; Romans' Florida, p. 10 ; Pittman's 
Mississippi Settlements, p. vii. 

2 2 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, pp. 295, 342. 



210 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

from Natchez to Mobile. He was probably more successful in 
his recommendation that Acadians from the Atlantic, who had 
been attracted by the Spaniards, be brought to Mobile. Pere 
Ferdinand had been an Acadian, and was influential amongst 
them. lie recommended that the government pay Ferdinand 
a salary of fifty guineas, but this was refused. Browne finally 
left the province after a duel with one man and calling out two 
others, who apologized. He had intended challenging others, 
but was bound over to keep the peace. This spring of 1770, 
Elias Durnford, thanks to Haldimand's influence, was acting- 
governor. 

Governor Durnford recommended to the home government 
that a substitute for Mobile be built at the Cliffs, between his 
land on the one side and Mr. Wegg's on the other. He urged 
the healthfuluess of the site and the depth of water in front. 
But all that was done was the establishment of a summer re- 
sort for the troops. Captain Crofton built the long-talked-of 
resort at the Red Cliffs, and there such of the 31st as were 
not needed at Fort Charlotte were taken. Certainly a more 
healthful spot than those piny woods bluffs below Montrose 
could not be found, and, if it was near where the cliff near Rock 
Creek towers sheer a hundred feet above the bay, the wide 
view over the blue water would charm those in health as much 
as it would the invalids. Nothing remains of the camp and 
tradition has lost the site, but, on account of water for drink- 
ing, there near the creek it must have been. 

By August the troops in Fort Charlotte were in miserable 
condition, and both* Brown and Lorimer were employed either 
at Mobile or the new encampment, Croftown, where the sick 
were taken from Mobile as they could be moved. Haldimand 
approved the captain's acts, and sent him tools. Crofton in 
this month asks for molasses to make spruce beer, and reports 
the men recovering. We do not know whether he used local 
pottery, but Romans says the finest potter's clay he ever saw 
was at the village not far away on Mobile Bay, where the 
inhabitants, like the Indians before and the Americans after 
them, made domestic vessels.^ 

The civil and military authorities seem on this occasion to 
have agreed for once. It was as' to establishing a ferry over 
^ Romans' Florida, p. 33. 



46 



British .Ailjniralty tliart. 
A. D. 1771. 



,trit. 




r7r S^ Sf Jf e,- f, ,, ^^ ,^ 3^ - •-- ^ ^ ./ _ 

^^ ^^ -^ '^ -'' *. .. .. 1. " ^ ^'::.A 

f>f f^ df gf *- » 1 i «. 1 1 » "^ '"^ '"^^ ^^ 

* ^ «^ «/• 

' »I ,£ aii '-i Z+f Z+f '^^^ ^ J.^^ 

^ ^ ^ * f 4 * ^ ^ ^ 5/ r «^ ^ ^ 

f ( f s s ^ ' &t f ei oi e\ 

y 7 <r i- r 7 7 -Tf n 



' ' ' ' > ,i ,i 



<f I 



8 tf «? * " « 8 

9 9 S 



9 



S S S 









if ^ I lof lor 



"ft* t I ,4f 



l-^i(taftJ. 






j.^ »i «i »i »■* » \y . 

^ ^ :r , , ^ ^ 



./eA 



X 'i 'i 't *t ^i z 



"^ » l4j 



OF' 




,./! fi 2^ 'i ^'- *" . < r 

, ^^ O B I Ij 2Z 




,i i% '■k 1% ^K 



3 3 3 3.3 i 




Glllori I.J 3 JX 1 ^ 



^i J N \'i'\\ ii ^ J s J. 

' ir, s ^6 t C < f f *^ *^l »I 

, - "777777 7 r H rt yi t 8 

' 7 ' 

' f a si «% a i J s 3 - 9 9 



?* 



loi "> 



' SICKNESS. 211 

the Perdido and cutting the road from Mobile to Pensacola, 
long before designed by Durnford while engineer. It also em- 
braced the canoe ferry once recommended by Farmer to be 
established between Mobile and Apalache Old Town. The 
authorities took care of the bridges, and also the Perdido ferry, 
but the Mobile merchants maintained the express to Pensacola 
to communicate with British packets. 

We meet a little touch of modern times in November in the 
complaint of the widow Lemarque to Haldimand that certain 
officers had left without paying their board, — a shabby act, 
certainly. What the general did for her is not known. It is 
to be hoped he did not turn over to her the provision stores just 
reported to him by Strother as spoiled. 

Before sending the troops to Mobile, Haldimand had a sur- 
vey and report on the condition of Fort Charlotte from T. 
Sower, commanding engineer. He found that there was not a 
single building belonging to his Majesty but needed some re- 
pairs. All the picketing whatever was entirely decayed about 
the fort. So of the hospital in town, and "the Indian House, 
one hundred feet long and forty broad, wants its roof repaired." 
This was the "Savage House " of earlier times. 

Of the fort he says : " The fort is a square with four bastions ; 
has embrasures for thirty-eight guns. . . . The fort is built 
of brick; has four bastions; the curtains are casemated. Two 
bastions are likewise casemated. In the southeast bastion is 
a powder magazine, and in the west-northwest one is a bake- 
house; both of these bastions are bomb-proof. The parapet, 
ramparts, and bankets are all of brick. The barracks are com- 
posed of upright posts put into the ground, with some framing 
to the windows and doors; the vacancies of which are filled 
up with clay and Spanish Beard, and whitewashed over; these 
two piles consist of nine rooms each." 

The officers' square was then arranged as follows. On the 
left, as one entered, was the guard-room ; on the right, the pro- 
vision store. Near were the men's barracks, and on the north 
side of the square the officers' barracks, with adjacent kitchen. 
Opposite were two wells, shingled over, and behind the officers' 
barracks was a small building of four rooms, also meant for 
officers. All buildings in this square were of brick. The new 
bakehouse, of which we learned in 1763, had now gone entirely 
to decay for want of covering. 



212 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

"As all the barracks in Fort Charlotte," he continues, "were 
found so much decayed as not to be worth repairing, and in 
order to save expense, it was judged necessary to repair the 
officers' square of barracks, formerly called so by the Span- 
iards, which is within one hundred yards of the fort, for the 
accommodation of his Majesty's troops, as all the buildings in 
the above mentioned square was good, being built with bricks." 
This had been Farmer's work, and he had begun a brick bas- 
tion over by the bakehouse. 

"This square is fitted up for the reception of two companies 
with their complement of officers, which are now well lodged, 
and, by adding four small stockaded bastions to the corners of 
the square, could defend themselves against Indians. But as 
this square is not quite so convenient, nor large enough to pro- 
tect the inhabitants which are now remaining at Mobile in case 
of an Indian war, I would recommend that the old communi- 
cation between Fort Charlotte and the square be stockaded as 
it formerly was, which would save the inhabitants to retire to, 
with their effects, in case of any rupture with the Indians in 
that part of the country." 

This shows that Lorimer's report had had the effect of the 
abandonment of the fort for residence of the troops. In March, 
1771, the repairs were under full way, the contractor at Mobile, 
and at Croftown too, being the energetic Pierre Rochon. A 
great deal was done at Red Cliffs more particularly, and on 
April 1 Croftown was finished. It embraced a palisaded bat- 
tery, with powder magazine and blockhouse in the rear. There 
Haldimand proposed to move some of the ordnance and stores 
from Fort Charlotte. Rochon was hard at work in Mobile, 
too, on the barracks and stockade, and on boats to be sent to 
Haldimand at Pensacola. It was all none too soon. There 
were Indian outrages reported. May 8 the inhabitants sent a 
petition, which was laid before Governor Chester, asking pro- 
tection, and on the same day Captain Connor reported to Gen- 
eral Haldimand that the Choctaws had become so hardy as even 
to strike the sentry of Fort Charlotte. Chester promptly called 
the attention of the general to the matter. Somewhat later, too, 
Choctaws destroyed cattle on Dugald Campbell's plantation. 
Another party robbed a trader within twenty miles of Mobile, 
and Creeks forced the abandonment of three plantations on the 



SICKNESS. 213 

bay, near the pass of Daiiphine Island. Other Indians, prob- 
ably Creeks, attacked the house of Tryon on the Alabama fifty 
miles above Mobile, and also compelled Hamton, Fleming, and 
others to abandon neighboring- places, claiming that the whites 
did not belong north of Apalache Old Fields. 

It is pleasant to turn to the side lights in the correspondence 
between Rochon and the general. The contractor was com- 
pelled by his wife's illness in April to remain at Mobile, and 
from there he sends a few dozen fowls as a compliment. He 
was building boats, one a schooner for the government, but had 
to wait until the middle of May for a sailmaker from New Or- 
leans. His own schooner was taken for carrying guns, but he 
has the policy to express himself as satisfied about it. He asks 
that his white workmen have rations at the royal tariff, which 
he will repay if not allowed. To Pensacola he sends over 
cUables, — despite the name, the peaceful articles we call log 
carts, — and also two pairs of oxen. Once Rochon expresses 
the intention of coming to Pensacola after finishing his work at 
Mobile, which would be by the 20th of June. He was anxious 
to obtain further employment, in order to refit his house, 
spoiled by the bad conduct of his children ; but he does not let 
us into the particulars of this domestic affair. This home may 
have been at Dog River, whence later letters are to be dated. 

Pierre Rochon was also a slaveholder, and his clear, bold 
signature to the negro baptismal entries contrasts strangely with 
the cramped hand of Pere Ferdinand, the Acadian. This good 
father continues his ministrations during the English times. 
The same forms, the same words, aU in French as before, con- 
tinue in this record, in the same thin book that had been paged 
and issued to him in 1757 by the French commandant. For- 
neret, R. Roi (the Indian interpreter), Montelimart, Lusser, 
Trouillet, Girard, A. Rochon as well as Pierre, Chastang, 
Demouy, Grelot, Carriere, Badon, Monlouis, and others, bring 
their children or slaves to him for baptism as in the old days, 
or attest his entries, as they chat with the father of French 
times and friends. The inhabitants were not able to support 
him, however, and about 1771 he retired to New Orleans. 
Twenty-six of them earnestly petitioned next year for his re- 
call, and Governor Chester warmly recommended it, and that 
a salary be allowed him. We find him back at Mobile again, 



214 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

althougli Lord Hillsborough refused the salary, and we can 
imagine the good father's welcome home. 

But they would soon come to notice, as we do even now, the 
trembling hand and almost illegible writing, at last the abbre- 
viated entries, often vmsigned, of the cure, seldom filled out 
now with the titles "capuchin priest, apostolic missionary," as 
he had once loved to write himself. Some time, it may be not 
long after that last signature under the marginal date 1773, the 
old citizens closed his eyes, and, in or near the church he had 
served so long, laid to rest with tears the beloved form which 
had connected for them this half -deserted British outpost with 
the Mobile of Grondel and Bienville. The church is gone, its 
very site uncertain, the grave and its contents now unknown; 
but somewhere near our St. Emanuel and Theatre, it may be in 
street, it may be by some home, lies the dust of Ferdinand, the 
last French cure of Mobile. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 

The acquisition of Florida by the English caused the pro- 
duction of a number of books relating to the Indians, geo- 
graphy, plants and animals as well. Jeffreys, Pittman, and 
Roberts we have already noticed, and have now to follow the 
travels of Bernard Romans, who was an army captain ; and later 
we shall study those of William Bartram, a botanist. The 
first went over the Tombigbee district in 1771-72 for Superin- 
tendent Stuart, and the other over the Alabama and Mobile 
country some five years later. Both show the interest taken 
in the new possessions, and the study to find out what could be 
made of them for commercial purposes. 

Romans says that after making arrangements with Superin- 
tendent Stuart, he left Mobile at four P. m. on Saturday, Sep- 
tember 20, 1771, with a party of Choctaws. He spent his first 
night "in pine land near a spring to the north of the path and 
at the foot of a hill six miles from town, the west a little by 
south." It is difficult to fix many of his locations, but there 
can be no reasonable doubt that this first stop was at or near 
Spring Hill. Thence on for some days they were crossing or 
heading Dog River and other streams, and then arrived on the 
banks of the Pascagoula River. Near there they found an 
Indian "hieroglyphick," or picture-writing, of which he gives 
an illustration, as he does also of one foimd a few days later. 
The first was a Choctaw memorial of having killed and scalped 
nine Creeks, and the second a Creek one showing that warriors 
of the Stag family had at Hoopah UUah scalped two men and 
two women and rowed off in triumph. 

Rain deterred them somewhat, but on the 27th they crossed 
Bogue Hooma (Red Creek), the boundary between the English 
and Choctaws, and three days later reached the Bogue-aithee- 
Tanne (our Buckatunna), and at Hoopah UUah, or Noisy Owl, 



216 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

found the second "hieroglypliick." The country was alter- 
nately pine and oak, savannah, swamj), and hill ; and they often 
passed through hurricane lands, and frequently saw such marks 
of Indians as paths, fields, and old camps, with occasionally a 
head on a pole to remind them of the Creek-Choctaw war. 
One day they saw three graves, — the first of a Tombecbe 
soldier; one of a savage, after whom it was named Rum-drink- 
er's Hill; and the other of a trader named Brown, who had done 
considerable business in the "Chactaw " and Chickasaw nations. 
Near the Choctaw town of Coosa they found peaches, "plumbs," 
and grapes. 

November 4, they were aided by Indians in crossing the 
Sookahanatcha (Sucarnochee), and at East Abeeka found 
Choctaws exulting over a victory. There the travelers put up 
at the house of Hewitt, a resident trader. This place had a 
stockade fort, and like Abeetap-Oocoola was a frontier town 
against the Creeks. George Dow now became their guide. 
Amongst many Choctaw towns chronicled, Moka Lassa is a 
familiar and important name ; and Romans passed near the site 
of East Congeata, destroyed in the Choctaw civil war. On 
the 23d they reached Chickasawhay, and stayed at the house 
of Ben James. 

Romans made quite a circuit of the Choctaw territory, going- 
even to Yoani, and returning to trader Hewitt's house at 
Abeeka. Thence he went to the Chickasaw nation, crossing 
Nashooba (Noxubee) and Okatebbeehaw (Oktibbeha) rivers on 
the way. The Indian commissary treated him very cavalierly, 
and awakened the captain's ire by taking away his horse. 

He reached the Tombigbee at last, apparently near where 
Bienville disembarked to attack the Chickasaws. On December 
13 he, his servant, and Mr. Dow embarked on Town Creek, 
after catching beavers. Perhaps its name of White Man's 
Trouble (Nahoola-Inalchubba) refers to Bienville's defeat. On 
the first day they passed the site of an old French fortified trad- 
ing-house on a bluff. His voyage took him by bluffs and low- 
lands, sand-bars, gravel islands, and pine banks; sometimes 
running rapids, sometimes detained by logs, or cutting his 
way through cypress-trees in the river. Romans was so un- 
fortunate, after killing some ducks and teals, as to have his gun 
torn from his hands by a snag, and see it sink beyond recovery 
in deep and rapid water. This was near Aberdeen. 



THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 217 

The weather was wretched, being cold, snowmg, or rainy, 
often detaining them for days in camp. They passed the last 
branch of the Tombigbee (probably the Buttahatchie), then the 
stony Sonac Tocale,^ and a number of creeks, none recogniz- 
able by his Indian names except "Old Town Creek," Oka- 
tibbehaw (Fighting Water, from being the Choctaw-Chicka- 
saw boundary), and Eleven Mile Creek (Luxa-pali-lah, or 
Floating Turtle). He had an eye for the romantic, too, and 
described at some length a remarkable crescent bluff [Barton's], 
rising fifty feet above the water, and extending almost a mile and 
a half along the river. This was near the modern Columbus. 

Before the 28th of December they had traveled fifty-eight 
miles and three quarters, having lately passed few creeks. 
On that day they began to see more rapids and high land than 
before, and had their first evidence of human life. Thence on, 
his journal will be given almost entire. 

"An hour and a half after leaving camp," he says, "we saw 
a bark log, just landed on the west side, and evident marks 
of people having just landed; this was in a long reach, and we 
had seen a smoak, but when we came near the bark log; the 
smoak vanished all at once. We soon found these people to 
be a war party of Creeks, who, perceiving our boat, had put 
out their fire, which on these occasions they make of hickory 
bark and other oily matters that yield little smoak. We 
therefore put on our hats, which we had not on before, it being 
a fine agreeable day and rather warm, and, laying on the pad- 
dles, did all we could to show that we were white people. It 
was fortunate for me that I had not brought a savag-e guide 
with me, which would have exposed us to a volley from these 
warriors: we did not see them, but we knew by the suppression 
of the smoak, that they had discovered us; they were un- 
doubtedly on the top of a pretty high bank, in ambush, so we 
let the boat flow past them. N. B. We have discovered many 
of those bark logs, made of cones, both above and below this 
place, upon which the war party ferry over. Half a mile 

' Tliis means Hanging Kettle. For the more difficult identifications 
given I am much indebted to the learned Dr. W. S. Wyman, Captain Frank 
Stone, and to Messrs. Williams and Jackson, pilots of the river. In 
meanings of words these notes reflect the views of Dr. Wyman. The edi- 
tion of Romans used is that of New Yorkj 1776, pp. 303-334, etc. 



218 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

lower down we saw the mouth of a middling large creek, on 
the east side. . . . The river is here above two hundred feet 
wide. Having come twenty-three miles, we encamped at four 
o'clock on a gravel bar. We saw many places that appeared 
like old fields, as having been formerly cultivated. 

"29th. At nine o'clock proceeded. . . . We saw again some 
spots bearing marks of former cultivation, and more of drowned 
land; the river in general this day rapid, with many islands 
[perhaps Ten Mile Shoals]: at half an hour past three p. m., 
having .traveled thirty-five miles, we encamped on the east 
side in a lagoon, on a high bank, where for the first time we 
saw the rich ground clear of large canes ; this being timbered 
chiefly with the shagbark hickory, ironwood, and Spanish oak. 

" 30th. This morning we had our boat loaded, but it began 
to rain, and thus were obliged to unload again. Here we found 
a canoe, which was well made, but had been by the savages, on 
account of the war, scuttled, and rendered unfit for use; how- 
ever we found that, if we could make her anyways tight, she 
would be more safe than the one that we had, and this we ef- 
fected by the help of wedges, clay, and leather. Our provisions 
beginning to grow scant, and having lost the only gun I had 
taken with me, I began to be uneasy, especially as we found 
the beavers become less plenty. The weather was uncommonly 
bad till the evening of the third of January, 1772, when it 
cleared up, and next morning, 

"4th January, 1772, at a quarter before eleven o'clock 
A. M., we proceeded in our new craft. . . . The canoe proves 
very leaky, and on unloading we find a great deal of our 
bread spoiled. This day came twenty-two miles and an half ; 
the canes and timber are very exceeding large. 

"5th. At a quarter past ten embarked: high banks on 
both sides. At half an hour after eleven past the mouth 
of a river from the east : this is called by the savages Nashe- 
baw [probably Sipsey ^ River, in Alabama]. The land here 
is exceeding rich, the canes very large ; and we saw a species of 
phaseolus, in great abundance, along the bank. About a mile 
and a quarter below the creek, we met four savages from 
Abeka, in the Choctaw nation, to whom Mr. Dow was known. 
The river has risen considerably since yesterday ; the current 
* Meaning Poplar Tree. The Choctaw Nashoha means Wolf. 



THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 219 

has been for these two days almost uniformly at the rate of 
three miles per hour. It is remarkable, that though the velo- 
city of our way was not much above two miles per hour inde- 
pendent of the current, yet we had several instances of having 
evidently outrun the flood at night, in so much that it would 
scarce reach us again before morning. We came to camp 
near the savages above mentioned, having come seven miles and 
a half; they had a good canoe which I intended to purchase. * 
The weather was very cold to-day. Lost a silver spoon at our 
last camp, which Mr. Dow proposed to go and fetch; but he 
found it impracticable to cross the Nasbehaw River. I agreed 
with the savages that they should hunt for us to procure pro- 
visions. At night it rained ; our camp was on the east side, 
in a very rich spot. We have not yet seen any sand or gravel, 
except on the bars and islands in the river, the soil in general 
being clay, or loam, with a dry black mould. 

" 6th. After a great deal of persuasion, I bought the canoe 
from the savages ; and they brought me in two deer and a tur- 
key, for all which I gave them five yards of blue strouds, two 
powder horns, knife and some small shot. I described our last 
camp to them, and desired them to look for the above men- 
tioned spoon, directing them to leave it in their own country 
with Mr. Dow's partner, who lived just by their homes, and 
gave them a note to him, desiring him to pay them for their 
trouble; but when they understood it to be the white stone 
(i. e.) silver, they declined going purposely for it; but pro- 
mised, if chance led them to the place, to carry it as directed, 
for, they not being able to work it, in case the trader refused 
to pay them they would lose their labor ; but had it been the 
fat of the earth^ (i. e.) lead or pewter, in that case they might 
make bullets or ear-rings of it, and then they would not take 
pains in vain: towards evening they left us, and during night 
we barbecued our venison to preserve it. 

"7th. At half an hour past seven o'clock a. m. embarked 
in our new craft; all day we passed between high banks, some 
steep, some sloping; several as high as eighty feet above the 
surface of the water; one of these has an extensive savannah 
on the top. At the end of nineteen miles and a half, on the 
west side, we saw the mouth of the river Noxshubby [Noxu- 
* The Choctaw for these is Talla-hatta and Yakne-em-belah. 



220 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

bee], or Hatchaoose ; ^ its banks are high on both sides ; here 
seems to be the true theatre of the war, for the bark logs are 
very numerous. The river is widened now from two hundred 
to two hundred and fifty feet. A mile and a half below the 
mouth of Noxshubby is the first bluff of arid ochre, like earth, 
very high and steep [Gainesville], and about eight- miles lower 
a white one, being a kind of stone almost as soft as chalk. . . . 
At four o'clock p. m. we came to camp on a low spot, on the east 
side, having gone down the river forty-two miles and a half; all 
day dull weather, and at night rain. 

"8th. Proceeded half an hour after 8 A. M. and having 
gone a little more than a mile, we reached the mouth of the 
creek called Ectomboguebe (i. e. Crooked Creek), on the west 
side; from this creek's name the French derive their Tom- 
bechbe, the name of the fort which stood here, and which has 
again given that name to the whole river [probably Tom's 
Creek]. 2 We went about half a mile further down, under a 
high and steep bank of chalky stone, and arrived at the ruins 
of the fort by means of which the French kept all the savages 
in awe. I went ashore in the old fields, and drew a view of 
the ruins; this is about forty miles east from the town of 
Abeeka. The river is not sixty feet wide here. About a mile 
and a half below these ruins is a pretty high but sloping slaty 
bluff : having come about nine miles, we arrived at a hunting- 
camp of Choctaws, on the west side, who invited us on shore, 
treated us very kindly, and spared us some venison, bear's 
meat and oil. The afternoon being stormy, with hail and rain, 
we encamped at a small distance from them : the canes were not 
very plenty here, but the land rich : a great deal of the plant 
called Indian Hemp grows in this place, but the season de-* 
prived me of the satisfaction of knowing what genus it is of. 

"9th. At half an hour past eleven proceeded, and in an 
hour and a quarter we passed by Chickianoee,^ a white bluff 
[Bluff port] with a savannah on its top, on the west side ; it is 
upwards of seventy feet high above the water's level: we passed 

^ Oka-nak-shobe is Choctaw for " Water which has a foul smell," while 
Hatcka-Use means Pumpkin Creek. 

2 Wyman thinks the creek's name, Ish-iam-bok (Crooked Creek), was dif- 
ferent from Ectomha-ikbee, Coffin-maker, the name of the river. 

8 Chiki-anowah would mean Chickasaw Walk. 



THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 221 

several high bhiffs, among which one is yellow like Ochre. 
. . . Having travelled twenty-four miles, came to camp at 
four o'clock P. M. on the east side, at the beginning of a steep 
slaty bluff. 

'■'lOth. At a half an hour past nine, a. m. j)roceeded; we 
went between high bluffs, and in two hours came to the mouth 
of Tuscaloosa River [Black Warrior] from the east; and a 
little below it is the steep, white, chalky bluff on whose top is a 
vast plain [Demopolis], and some remains of huts in it; the 
bluff is called the Chickasaw Gallery, because from here the 
savages used to annoy the French boats going up to the fort, or 
down from it. The river is hereabouts full of rapids and bad 
passes : we came past a number of high bluff's, most of them 
chalky. At half an hour past three we passed the mouth of 
Sookhanatcha [Sucarnochee] ^ from the west, and three miles 
below it came to camp, at four o'clock p. m., at the foot of the 
hill where formerly the Coosadas^ were settled: this place 
is called Suktaloosa (i. e. Black Bluff), from its being a kind 
of coal : it is a great thorough -fare for warring savages ; there- 
fore we took the usual precaution of large fires, and hanging 
our hats on stakes, which we had reason to think not in vain; 
for in the night we heard the report of small arms. This day 
we came thirty-six miles. It is worthy of remark, that al- 
though we have come near seventy miles from the ruins of 
Tombechbe, yet by land the distance is not above twenty -four 
or twenty-five miles. The land here is very fine, and Mr. 
Dow told me that he had lived here with the Coosadas, and 
that the common yield of corn was from sixty to eighty bushels 
per acre; that they increased horses and hogs to any degree 
they pleased ; and that venison, turkies, and fish were uncom- 
monly plenty. 

"11th. Last night and this morning being rainy, we could 
not proceed till eleven o'clock. All this day we passed through 
the remains of the Coosada and Occhoy settlements, ^ being all 

^ Shukha-nachaha, Choctaw for Hog's Backbone. , 

^ Some of the Coosadas, who were of Alibamon, not Creek stock, moved 
west when the French abandoned Fort Toulouse. In 1766, they were at war 
with the Choctaws and seem to have been worsted. 

^ The Okchays had been in the Coosa region. They were apparently of 
Choctaw stock and accompanied the Coosadas in their migration. There is 
a blufE in the northeast corner of Choctaw County still called West Okchai. 



222 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

a fine tract of ground, of which much had been cleared ; but it 
is now again overgrown with reeds; the grand, or public plan- 
tation in particular is an excellent tract. At four o'clock p. m. 
we encamped on a little plain, under a bluff, where was a large 
hunting camp, to appearance about two years old; here we saw 
some stones, having been deeply marked by the savages with 
some uncouth marks, but most of them being straight lines and 
crossed. I have since been led to conjecture, whether they were 
not occasioned by these people grinding their awls on these 
stones ; yet they do not ill resemble inscriptions : this place is 
a pretty situation, and is nearly two miles below the deserted 
Occhoy town, which stood likewise near a black coaly bluff; 
the distance we made this day is twenty-one miles; we had fine 
weather during the day, but the night was showery. 

" 12th. At half an hour past 8 a. m. proceeded. All this 
day we saw marks of great fertility of soil, and much tolerably 
high land : at half an hour past ten we were at a creek called 
Abeshai"; at a quarter past eleven, at the last Occhoy field, by 
a creek called Bashailawaw ; ^ at eleven a. m., at the hills of 
Nana Falaya,^ on the east side, which rise steep out of the 
water about fifteen or twenty feet, then slope up into very 
high short pine hills. Some parts of the rock are red, others 
grey. Here we were overtaken by very bad weather, from 
which took shelter; at half an hour past one p. m. we en- 
camped about tliree quarters of a mile below the hill, on the 
slope of a pretty high bank, where we found the remains of a 
camp that had been occupied lately by white people ; we came 
about eleven miles and a half this day ; the rain continued till 
two o'clock A. M. next day, when the wind shifting to W. N. 
W. it grew excessively cold. 

"13th. At half an hour pastteii A. M. proceeded; at one 
o'clock we came to a hill on the east side, with an old field on 
its summit ; this hill is called Batcha-Chooka [Tuscahoma] ; here 
we found a notorious gang of thieves, belonging to the to-svTi of 
Oka Loosa (Black Water), a town in the Chactaw nation. 

1 This seems to mean " boundary," but unlike Bashai Creek, in Clarke 
County, was on no boundary now known. . 

- This means Long Bluff, nunnik, accented on the second syllable, de- 
noting bluff. In a previous note Romans says that by pine he always means 
Pinus Abies Virginiana, conis parvis subrotundis, the Balm of Gilead Pine. 



THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 223 

When we saw their raft, we took them to be a Creek war party ; 
therefore, being hailed by them, and not choosing to be shot 
at, we went near the shore; but on discovering who they were, 
I refused to land ; they still insisted we must, but my obstinate 
persisting to the contrary disapj)ointed their sanguine hopes of 
plunder, and after some altercation I proceeded. This day the 
marks of fertility of soil are not so uninterrupted as on the 
former days. Our weather was clear, and a strong northerly 
wind prevailed; we came nineteen miles since morning, and 
encamped on the west side, in a low spot of ground. 

"14th. Last night the frost was severe; at a quarter past 
nine A. m. proceeded; in haK an hour's time we saw very high 
hills, at a mile, or better, from the river, seemingly covered 
with pine timber; these hills the savages call Nanna Chahaws.^ 
Here is a steep place above forty feet perpendicular out of the 
water, and another steep above it ; the last is a grey slaty rock ; 
this ]3lace is called Teeakhaily Ekutapa, and the people from 
Chicasahay had a settlement here before the war. [Macarty's 
Ferry.] About a mile and a quarter from hence is a remark- 
able white sand hill on the east side; four miles lower, we came 
to Yagna-hoolah ^ {i. e. the Beloved Ground), which lies on the 
east side and is very high, continuing above two miles along 
the river bank; its lower part is steep and of a whitish grey, 
and at the end above two hundred feet high, reckoning perpen- 
dicularly [Witch Creek Hill]. A mile below this is a white sand 
hill on the west side; we saw the pine hills all this day, at 
various distances from the river, sometimes close to it, and the 
canes begin to diminish, and pine trees mix among the timber. 
The current for these two last days is very considerably 
slackened, and the river widened to above five hundred feet. 
We came about thirty miles and a half this day, and encamped 
at four o'clock p. m. on the side of a kind of bluff, about six miles 
below a branch called Isawaya;^ all day cold, the latter part 
dull and hazy; at a quarter past nine proceeded. Eight miles 

^ Just below Wood's Bluff. This buhrstone formation makes up the 
most picturesque spot on the river. The meaning is High Hills, and the 
hills do not cease until at Oven Bluff, near Mcintosh's. 

2 Yakne-hulo, Holy Ground, 

^ The Crouching Deer, far more romantic than the senseless Sea Warrior 
into which the Americans have converted the word. 



224 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

below our camp we were at the mouth of Senti Bogue ^ (i. e. 
Snake Creek), having an island in its mouth, and coming" from 
the westward. Two miles and a quarter lower is Atchatickpe 
[Hatchetigbee],^ a large bay or lagoon on the same side; at 
this place is the beginning of our boundary with the Chactaws, 
running from the west till it strikes Senti-Bogue, and then 
follows 'the course of said creek up to a certain sugar-loaf hill, 
and so over to Bogue Hooma and Bakkatane.^ A mile below 
this, at the bending of the river, is a bluff, but not very high, 
of a dark grey stone : above this it rises gradually, sloping into 
a very high hill, variegated into small ridges. We saw many 
spots of pines, and some white sand hills ; but in general the 
soil has a better appearance than yesterday. About an hour 
before we encamped, we came to the last rapids [McGrew's 
Shoals], or the first from below; here is a remarkable spot of 
yellow rock in the western bank, beginning with a high, per- 
pendicular, white rock with some grass spots [near St. Ste- 
phens] ; it is above fifty feet above the present surface of the 
water; its top is level and shrubby; in the middle projects a 
remarkable lump, which in coming down looks exactly like a 
buttress against a wall. At four o'clock, p. M. we encamped 
on the east side in the low ground, above a mile below the 
rocks, having come thirty-one miles. The weather has been 
clear and cold all this day. Stout sloops and schooners may 
come up to this rapid ; therefore I judge that here some consid- 
erable settlement will take place. 

"16th. Proceeded at half an hour past eight A. m. Hav- 
ing come about fifteen miles, we saw the remains of the old 
Weetumpkee settlement : about seven miles below this, on the 
east side, is an odd rocky bluff, appearing to be sandy, and is 
covered with cedar trees [Carney's Bluff]. The river here is 
very crooked ; and about six miles below, on the west side, we 
saw a spacious old field, and a smoak in one edge of it; but 
nobody near it; and two miles lower down, hearing a rustling 

' Sinte-bok. 

2 This seems to mean Neck of Bottle Stream, possibly from expansion of 
the river into the lagoon, now long since filled and cultivated. Old pilots 
remember the lagoon. 

^ Bogue Homa, or Red Creek, is a branch of the Buckatunna, which means 
" Creek on the other side." 



THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 225 

in the canes, we looked that way, and saw a savage in a war 
dress, lying flat ; finding hiniseK perceived, he got up and beck- 
oned to us ; but although we were within ten feet of him, we 
seemed not to have remarked him, upon which he lay down 
again : it is to be imagined that he was not alone, and that this 
was a war party, who had been at the smoak in the old field, 
and having perceived us had come to this place, knowing that 
here we must come near the bank ; but seeing that we were not 
Chactaws, and thinking themselves undiscovered, kept close. 
At a quarter past four o'clock p. M. we came to a camp on the 
west side, which we supposed by the boats, etc., to be occupied 
by white people, in which opinion we were soon confirmed. 
When they invited us on shore, we found they were one Thomas 
Baskett, with two white hunters and some Chactaws; we were 
here well regaled with excellent meat and very good bread, 
which, being prepared in an excellent manner, was a noble feast 
to us. I purchased some bear, bacon, and venison hams of 
them, and staid all night at their camp; the distance we came 
this day was thirty -one miles. 

"17th. Embarked at half an hour past nine A. M. and 
proceeded, accompanied by two canoes with savages : we soon 
passed by some high pine hills on the east side; and at their 
end, having come about two miles, we were at the little creek 
called Ape - Bogue - oose [Choctaw for " little salt creek "], 
which is a spring so intensely salt that, the savages told us, 
three kettles of its water yield one of salt. Having then 
proceeded four hours through low land on each side, we arrived 
at the place called by the French The Forks, being a lagoon 
divided into three branches [Three Rivers], whereof the first 
is called Ape Tonsa, the second Beelosa, and the third Caanta- 
calamoo : here the savages left us ; we still proceeded for half 
an hour more through low land, and then came to a large bay, 
at the end whereof begins the Tomeehettee bluff [Mcintosh's], 
where formerly a tribe of that nation resided ; this is the first 
time we have the real pine barren butting on the river; it is 
very level. ^ About five miles below this place, we came to the 
first islands that are of note [Bilbo's Island]; the land eon- 

1 Romans does not mention this as the residence of James Mcintosh, 
Indian interpreter under the British ; but it was so at this or some other 
time. 



226 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

tinues low and pretty rich : here we see the first summer canes.^ 
At six o'clock p. M. we came to the Coosadas bluff, having 
had the Naniabe (i. e. Fish Killer's Island) [Nana HubbaJ 
above an hour on our west side; this place was the last settle- 
ment of the Coosadas after they left Suktaloosa; and in little 
more than haK an hour we were at the mouth of the great Ali- 
bamo River. We passed the Nita Abe, or Bear Killer's Bluff, 
on the left, and at nine o'clock p. M. we came to the north end 
of the island, which divides the branch called Dog River [the 
Tensaw] from the west branch of the river. Here we stayed 
all night at the plantation of the Chevalier de Lucere, but found 
only three or four old slaves and children, the whole of the able 
hands and the overseer being gone to make tar-kilns, so that 
we had but indifferent fare. We came this day forty -two miles 
and a half. N. B. These islands are very fertile, and have a 
great many plantations on them, on the branches which lay out 
of our way, particularly on the Taensa and Dog rivers. 

"18th. At a quarter past nine a. m. proceeded; passed 
several plantations, as well on the islands as on the main, 
particularly Campbell's, Stuart's, Ardry's, and M'Gillivray's: 
at half an hour past eleven a. m. arrived at Mr. Favre's house, 
where I stayed in order to get some refreshment; this being 
the first Christian habitation I had been at since the 20th 
September last year. Mr. Favre treated us in a most friendly, 
genteel and hospitable manner. At one o'clock some boats 
went up the river, which I heard were Mr. Stuart's people, 
with a provincial deputy surveyor, going up to ascertain the 
boundary between us and the Chactaws. At two o'clock some 
gentlemen, among whom was Major Dixon, of the sixteenth 
regiment, and Charles Stuart, deputy superintendent of Indian 
affairs (to whom I described Atchatikjae and Senti-Bogue, where 
they were to begin), followed them : they proceeded up to Mr. 
Stuart's plantation, about three miles higher up the river. We 
had come seven miles and a quarter this day. In the afternoon 
it began to rain, and all night was a prodigious storm of wind 
and rain, which I had the pleasure of weathering out under 

^ Romaus presented Superintendent Stuart with part of a cane cut on 
this trip which measured 47 feet from the third joint up. The joints were 
20 inches long and above 5 in circumference. He says it was not an ex- 
traordinary instance. 



THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 227 

a good roof; here we found several families of Chaetaw sav- 
ages. 

"19tli. At a quarter past nine A. M. we proceeded; went 
past Chastang's, Strother's, and Narbonne's plantations, hav- 
ing chiefly pine land on the main, and the rich islands on 
our left all this day. Having gone five miles and three quar- 
ters, we passed by the ruins of Fort Conde, or old Mobile 
[27 Mile Bluff], and near six miles lower down we passed by 
the ruins of a fine plantation, formerly belonging to the French 
Intendant at Mobile, now to Mr. Lizard at the same place [21 
Mile Bluff 1] : four miles and three quarters lower down, we met 
with the first marsh; the river being very full, we could not 
learn how far the salt water had its effect, the bay itself being 
fresh and good at this time; but Mr. Dow, who had been sev- 
eral times up and down this river, and had lived with the 
Coosadas for some years, assured me that the tide was very 
visible at the old Wetumpkee settlements, and in extraordinary 
tides even as far as Sukta Loosa, where, during his residence 
on the spot, he has frequently seen it ebb and flow about an 
inch. We came this day thirty-five miles and a half, and at 
nine o'clock p. M. we arrived at Mobile." 

1 This Mr. Lizard has given his name to the bayous east of this place at 
21 Mile BlufE and obscured the earlier history. The French intendant, or 
more properly commandant, alluded to as the first owner, as Uubroca testi- 
fies in an existing Spanish inquest, was Beauchamps, for whom the bayou 
was named. Beauchamps sold to G rondel, in whose honor the plantation 
was called St. Philippe, which apparently has led to the idea of first Fort 
Louis' having that name. Grondel sold to Populus and he then to Pechon. 
On the coming of the English it was bought by Lizard & Co., who erected 
a mill there. After Romans' trip we learn that Lizard was murdered, and 
at an auction the place became the property of John McGillivray, the well- 
known British merchant at Mobile. 



CHAPTEK XXVIII. 

THE SEVENTIES. 

Succeeding years brought little change to Mobile. The 
fort and barracks were repaired and two companies were sta- 
tioned there, but little advance was effected beyond trade with 
the Indians. Haldimand, in June, 1771, took twelve twelve- 
pounders from Fort Charlotte to Pensacola, substituting, as he 
wrote Gage, "small pieces to satisfy the inhabitants, who, to 
obtain more troops, pretend to be afraid." 

We do not read of so much sickness in the garrison this 
summer, although there was some; but in November we find 
Haldimand corresponding with Pierre Rochon the younger at 
Pensacola, who speaks of the death of his father. The mantle 
had descended on worthy shoulders, and the young man an- 
nounces that he will carry out his father's agreements and 
intentions. Missing planks, for instance, will be supplied. 
The last letter preserved from the father was dated July 11, 
from Mobile. Haldimand no doubt missed his old friend 
when on November 28 he was in Mobile to attend a Congress 
of Chickasaws. 

In January, 1772, Lord Hillsborough, for the British cabinet, 
wrote to General Gage from Whitehall to set at rest the old 
question as to control of the forts ; for the poj^ular Peter Ches- 
ter, govei-nor since 1770, had reopened it. It was decided in 
favor of the governor, and the general was to exercise authority 
only over the troops. This no doubt settled the question also 
as to the house which Chester maintained in the fort at Pensa- 
cola, always submitted to reluctantly by the military. 

Haldimand writes Gage in February of another difference 
with the governor. Durnford had finished his surveys, — in 
fact the well-known admiralty chart dates from 1771, — and 
the general had sent the bill for expenses to Chester. These 
the governor insisted should be paid by the general, who re- 



THE SEVENTIES. 229 

torted that the survey was for the good of the whole province, 
which received a sufficient subsidy. He had just visited the 
country. West of Mobile Bay he found it barren and liable 
to floods. There was only one settler on the river. 

This was not to remain true long, for Chester's congress at the 
end of December, 1771, showed the Choctaws friendly. Ahnost 
two thousand were present, and, besides British officials, Robert 
Farmer, William Struthers, Alexander Mcintosh, and Daniel 
Ward were there among the principal Mobilians. One matter 
of complaint by the savages would seem to have been the grant- 
ing of lands to whites up the Alabama, this being beyond the 
Tensaw River, which they deemed the natural boundary. 

Shortly after this the plan was seriously discussed of de- 
molishing Fort Charlotte, and taking the brick to Pensacola for 
building some batteries contemplated there. Engineer Sowers 
estimated that there would be 16,000 brick thus available. 
Haldimand finally decided against such removal, although he 
favored putting bastions to the square; while about the same 
time. May, Governor Chester determined to destroy Fort Char- 
lotte. The design was not carried out, but may be Chester 
would have had his way at last, — if, a few years later, Galvez 
had not had his. 

A good deal of interest was taken in settling the banks of the 
Mississippi. Durnford was sent there to explore the Iberville 
River, but Gage declared it useless. The English, he said, 
must possess New Orleans in order to utilize the river, and he 
and Haldimand discussed from time to time plans for invasion 
of Louisiana in case of war with Spain. The Indians, too, 
were under constant surveillance. Charles Stuart or John 
Stuart made frequent expeditions to conciliate different south- 
ern tribes or to mediate their quari-els and wars, and often one 
or the other reports on the subject from Mobile. The Indian 
question was a very live one then, and the sale of rum to the 
savages was as now a great cause of trouble. Trade by canoe 
or pack-horse was important, and many savages, especially 
Choctaws, were on the streets of Mobile even at other times 
than during their congresses. 

The exports at this time were principally derived from them, 
and if not large in volume were certainly varied in nature. 
Indigo and hides probably led the list, but we find also timber 



230 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

and lumber, staves, peltry, cattle, corn, tallow, bear's oil, tar 
and pitch, rice, tobacco, myrtle wax, salted wild beef, salted 
fish, pecans, sassafras, and oranges. Romans says vegetables, 
although not common at Pensacola, were raised in great abun- 
dance at Mobile, and that the only reason meat and fish were 
rare at both places was the indolence of the inhabitants, who 
let one or two butchers and three or four industrious Spanish 
hunters and fishermen fix their own prices. Bees came from 
the Atlantic colonies to West Florida only in 1772. This 
spring and fall of 1772 we see Rochon from Dog River 
(^Riviere aux Chiens) sending loads of plank and of hay to 
Haldimand at Pensacola, and drawing for fifty dollars and 
other sums, — once for the total amount then due, in order to 
satisfy an execution; for, under the common law of imprison- 
ment for debt, a civil execution was almost as bad as a military 
one. 

Cotton has been noticed under the French, and now Romans 
speaks prophetically of its future.^ 

"Cotton," he says, "being so very useful a commodity that 
scarce any other exceeds it, and an article of which we can never 
raise too much (for, like all other things, the more it is multi- 
plied the more its consumption increases), it therefore behooves 
me to mention it as second in rank. We, by following the 
example of the industrious Acadians, will do well to manufac- 
ture all our necessary clothing in Florida of this staple ; and 
although it has not yet been raised in a sufficient extent to 
export a considerable quantity thereof, yet when we consider 
the number of manufactures in Lancashire, Derbyshire, and 
Cheshire that consume this beneficial commodity, either alone 
or in mixture with silk, wool, flax, etc., and that England 
imports all the rough materials fi-om abroad (chiefly from 
the Levant) to so great an amount as near ,£400,000 sterling 
value, we may perhaps find it worthy of a more universal pro- 
pagation. . . . 

"Cotton will grow in any soil, even the most meagre and 
barren sand we can find. 

"The sort we must cultivate here is the Gossypium Atini- 
versarium., or Xylon Herhacetim ; also known by the name of 
green seed cotton, which grows about four or five feet in 
1 Romans's Florida, p. 139. See also pp. 115, 141, 171. 



THE SEVENTIES. 231 

height. Give this plant a dry soil, and further it will cost you 
little trouble or attention; it must be planted in rows at regu- 
lar distances about six feet apart: plant the seed in rainy 
weather, and in about five months' time the fibres will be com- 
pletely formed and the parts fit together, which will be known 
by their being completely expanded ; it must now be carried to 
the mill, of which take the following description. 

" It is a strong frame of four stubs, each about four feet high, 
and joined above and below by strong transverse pieces ; across 
this are placed two round well-polished iron spindles, having 
a small groove through their whole length, and by means of 
treadles are by the workman's foot put in directly opposite 
motions to each other : the workman sits before the frame, hav- 
ing a thin board, of seven or eight inches wide, and in length 
of the frame, before him ; this board is so fixed to the frame 
that it may be moved over again and near the spindle ; he has 
the cotton in a basket near him, and with his left hand spreads 
it on this board along the spindles, which by their turning draw 
the cotton through them, being wide enough to admit the cot- 
ton, but too near to permit the seed to go through, which, being 
thus forced to leave the cotton in which it was contained, and 
by its rough coat entangled, falls on the ground between the 
workman's legs, while the cotton drawn through falls on the 
other side into an open bag suspended for that purpose under 
the spindles. 

"The French in Florida have much improved this machine 
by a large wheel which turns two of these mills at once, and 
with so much velocity as, by means of a boy who turns it, to 
employ two negroes at hard labor to shovel the seed from under 
the mill. One of these machines I saw at Mr. Krebs' at Pasca 
Oocooloo, but as it was partly taken down, he claiming the 
invention was very cautious in answering my questions, I can- 
not pretend to describe it accurately ; I am informed that one 
of those improving mills will deliver seventy or eighty pounds 
of clean cotton per diem. 

"The packing is done in large canvas bags, which must be 
wetted as the cotton is put in, that it may not hang to the cloth 
and may slide better down ; the bag is suspended between two 
trees, posts, or beams, and a negro with his feet stamps it down ; 
these bags are made to contain from three hundred and fifty to 



232 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

four hundred weight; with about twenty slaves moderately 
working, a very large piece of poor ground might be finely 
improved so as to yield to its owner a fine annvial income by 
means of a staple which is much in demand in England, and 
here is raised by no means inferior in whiteness and fineness, as 
well as length of fibres, to that of the Levant." 

The summer of 1772 was again a sickly one for the garrison. 
On August 15, Ilaldimand writes Gage that the whole of the 
garrison would soon be in hospital. He had already sent a 
third doctor, and would forward a schooner to relieve the troops. 

But the schooner was not to arrive very soon, for it encoun- 
tered the great September storm, which lasted from August 30 
through September 3 on all the Gulf coast. This was prob- 
ably the schooner which was driven westerly as far as Cat 
Island, where she anchored until the water rose so high that 
she parted her cable and floated over the island. This relief 
detachment of the 16th regiment was compelled to remain on 
a desolate island for six weeks until themselves relieved by a 
smack. The Mobile garrison improved before they arrived, 
but the storm injured the wharf, fort, and town severely. The 
hurricane drove vessels, boats, and logs out of the bay up into 
the river, and through the very streets of the town. There 
was such an accumulation of logs on the lower lands of the 
place that the inhabitants needed no other fuel during the 
ensuing winter. Spray was carried far inland,^ and salt water 
was forced over the gardens, destroying the vegetables. All the 
houses were filled several feet deep with water, and one in- 
habited by a joiner was run through by a brig which had broken 
from the moorings. ^ The greatest severity of the storm, how- 
ever, was felt by Krebs and the Germans near Pascagoula 
River. 

We can readily imagine that Rochon was now in great 
demand, and by November we find the patriotic British at 
Pensacola up in arms about this Frenchman's taking their 
business away. John Cambel files with Ilaldimand a writ- 
ten protest against the preference given to Rochon and other 
Frenchmen when reasonable offers were received from others 
who could better supply the articles. This entailed, he said, 

^ 3 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. 48 ; Romans' Florida, p. 4. 
* 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 11. 



THE SEVENTIES. 233 

discharge of local carpenters and injury of shingle men. 
Haldimand was a foreigner himself and had the good sense to 
refer the matter to General Gage, who promptly decided in 
favor of Roclion as the cheaj)er.^ Lieutenant Cambel rather 
sided with the civil authorities in the disputes with the military, 
and receives sharp reprimands from both Gage and Haldimand. 
He appears finally to have claimed a court martial, and to have 
been sent to New York. 

Charles Stuart, the deputy superintendent, writes from 
Mobile on May 1 about the doings of the Chickasaws on the 
Illinois, and in July communicates from Mobile the resnlt of 
his investigation mto the murder of whites by Indians in the 
interior, where three had been killed. The Upper Creeks and 
Choctaws had been at war as usual, but negotiations were then 
in progress looking to running a new line. Some murders of 
Georgians and the defeat by Creeks of Georgia militia, however, 
rendered affairs critical for a year or so, the more so as reports 
came of a general alliance of the southern tribes. The assembly 
of Georgia in March, 1774, petitioned for imperial aid; but 
Superintendent John Stuart at Charleston found a way by No- 
vember to settle disputes with the Creeks, the real disturbers 
of the peace. Mobile was in little danger, as the Creeks were 
far away, although on the Alabama River, and the Choctaws 
remained friendly. Indeed, they were ready and willing to fight 
their inveterate foes the Creeks in order to aid their British 
allies. They complained through John Mcintosh, an Indian 
agent at Mobile, of the traders' bringing in rum, a wrong 
spoken of also by Charles Stuart in July in connection with 
the Chickasaws, who had on the whole remained friendly. 
Stuart had been lately among both tribes. As return visits to 
him meant not only talks but presents, we can readily under- 
stand his remarking on the expense of so many Indians coming 
to the Mobile station. 

But here the valuable Haldimand Papers fail us. General 
Gage had to go to England in 1773 for some purpose, and 
Haldimand was promoted to take his place at New York. 
Thence he superintended his old department, but only as he 
did the rest of North America, and local information is rare. 
Chester interested himself in the purchase of Haldimand's 
1 Campbell's Colonial Florida, p. 104. 



234 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

house in Pensacola ; but from those papers we learn nothing of 
Mobile beyond the implication in the statement of 1773 that 
settlers were coming into West Florida. 

Gage returned to America in 1775, and when the Boston 
Tea Party and other troubles came he was in command. It 
was thought inexpedient that a foreigner like Haldimand should 
be prominent in dealing with the colonists, and so he was sent 
to the West Indies for a while. He was never again in Mobile 
or Pensacola. He was governor of Canada for the ten years 
following 1778, and to Canadian interest in that fact we owe 
the existence of his papers in America. 

Pew documents survive in the Mobile archives of this period, 
and the one deed in the Translated Records is so indefinite in 
description as not to be of much aid. But its form of "grant, 
bargain, sell," and the rest of it, with the "To Have and To 
Hold," is at least an agreeable reminder of English procedure. 

One paper is dated February 2, 1775, and by it, for 8100, 
Augustin Rochon buys three lots, with a house all falling to 
pieces. The sellers are Margaret Belluque, Francis Fieurs 
(Fievre?), Martonne (Martha?) Dubroca, and Louisa Rochon. 
The property is a double lot, that is, extending east and west 
from street to street, bounded south by Henry Driscol. North 
it is bounded in part by the vacant lot also conveyed and the 
lot of J. B. Lefleaux, the vacant lot in turn being bounded 
north and west by unnamed streets. 

This property was the subject of litigation in American times 
between the omnivorous Kennedys and the heirs of Rochon, 
and in this way we learn its location to have been at the south- 
east corner of Conception and Government. It would seem that 
the original grantee was B. F. Fievre, probably the ancestor 
of the parties selling to Rochon. Rochon married Louisa 
Fievre, and she as his widow resided there, with her yard, 
fruit trees, and park overlooking the common, at least until 
1780. Whether she was there later or not was the point in 
the suit, which depended on whether U. S. Commissioner 
Crawford reported in 1814 that she had lived there "thirty- 
six years" or "thirty-six years ago."^ Marie Jeanne Simon 
Lapointe, mother of the wife of Orbanne Demouy, must have 
been the first wife of Rochon. ^ 

* Kennedy v. Rochon, 26 Alabama Reports, 390, 391. 
2 Will of Maria Rochon, 1 Mobile Will Book, p. ll. 



THE SEVENTIES. 235 

There has been also preserved at Mobile a contract of sale 
by one Walter Hood, but the land is bounded by unnamed 
"streets" and cannot well be identified. It shows in an 
indorsement the signature o£ the firm of McGillivray & Stru- 
thers. There is also an English deed of a lot 'in 1770 by 
John Favre to Joseph Bouzage, bounded north and east by 
imnamed streets, west by widow Parisien, and south by Juzan 
and Livoy. 

A much longer document, dated August 10, 1777, has also 
survived among the Mobile records of these times, which 
throws much light on other things besides titles. It is an 
original sealed deed-poll, on genuine parchment, by Arthur 
Strother, one of the masters in chancery of West Florida, con- 
veying to Daniel Ward, Esq., the plantation of Lis Loy, also 
translated "Goose Island." The present instrument takes up 
the history of it as held by Monberault, and carries it almost 
through the British domination. 

The Chevalier de Montaut de Monberault obtained his grant 
from Governor Kerlerec March 11, 1763, and with one Fon- 
tenot, who was also interested in the property, sold it on July 
9, 1765, to Samuel Israel, Alexander Solomons, and Joseph 
Depalacios, merchants and copartners at Mobile. These mer- 
chants seem from their names and Farmer's articles to have 
been Jews. They were indebted to a merchant of Pensacola, 
John Thompson by name, and so for <£1,157 18s. Id. they in 
October of this same year mortgaged to him Lis Lo}^ with its 
dwelling, outhouses, and barn. The debt was not paid, and 
Thompson next February filed his biU for foreclosure and sale 
in the West Florida Court of Chancery. Where this sat is not 
stated, but a final decree was rendered August 11, 1767, Hon. 
Montfort Browne being then chancellor. The sale took place 
at Mobile in the spring of the next year before Elias Legardere, 
a master in chancery, and Daniel Ward, of Fish River, was 
at $107 the highest and best bidder. He paid the money and 
turned the title papers over to Thomas Hardy, attorney at law, 
in order to have his deed drawn. But Hardy died, and the 
papers could not be found. 

"By great good luck," the executor ran across these and 
other old papers in 1776 in an old rice-barrel, and Ward filed a 
petition in the same "High and Honorable Court of Chancery " 



236 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

to have a master directed to make him a deed. This was 
granted by Peter Chester, Esq., chancellor, and Arthur 
Strother ordered to make the deed, which he accordingly did, 
reciting the facts as above related. 

Deeds nowadays often contain unnecessary words, but do 
not call for as many appurtenances as this one; for Strother 
sells the "Plantation or Tract of Land, generally called Lis 
Loy, aforesaid, Situated about a League and a half up the Kiver 
called Pool \^Poule\ River aforesaid at the. Cul de sac or turn 
called Lis Loy or Goose Island, Together with all Houses, 
Out Houses, Buildings, Orchards, Gardens, Lands, Meadows, 
Commons, Pastures, Feedings, Trees, Woods, Underwoods, 
Ways, Paths, Waters, Water-courses, Easements, Profits, 
Commodities, Advantages, Emoluments, Hereditaments, Lib- 
erties, Priviledges and Appendages." The contents run some- 
what over one large page, but by an ingenious device the 
master so affixes with tape an additional piece of parchment 
that he can still sign and seal the instrument on the main page. 

Such is a report of the first known chancery foreclosure 
within the limits of the present Mobile County, — the cause of 
John Thompson, complainant, v. Samuel Israel et al., defend- 
ants, with ancillary proceedings on the petition of John Ward 
for a deed, all before the governor of West Florida sit- 
ting as chancellor. It is almost the only instance surviving 
of British procedure ; for, although we have also the indictment 
of Richard Painter in 1765 for stealing clothing from the 
warehouse of the merchant John McGillivray, this is all that 
is known of the case ; and of the Court of Requests we learn 
only that in 1768 its clerk received a salary of £20. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

WHAT BARTRAM SAW. 

Before the American Revolution, a Dr. FothergiH, of 
London, commissioned one William Bartram, son of the 'dis- 
tinguished botanist John Bartram, to search the Floridas and 
the west parts of Carolina and Georgia "for the discovery of 
rare and useful productions of nature, chiefly in the vegetable 
kingdom. " He certainly selected the right man, and the travels 
of the observing and enthusiastic botanist contain a mine of 
information. He embarked in April, 1773, for Charleston, and 
after arrival, spent until January, 1778, exploring the southern 
country. In 1777, he was much in and about Mobile. 

He came from Georgia by way of Talase on the Tallapoosa, 
the northeast great branch of the Alabama or Mobile River, ^ 
and crossed the Schambe (Escambia), which carried waters to 
Pensacola,2 draining a dark and bloody border-ground between 
the Indians. After a while he "arrived at Taensa, a pretty high 
bluff on the eastern channel of the great Mobile River, about 
thirty miles above Fort Conde, or City of Mobile, at the head 
of the bay." Below Taensa he found low, flat, and rich islands 
for twenty miles, "well cultivated, having on them extensive 
farms and some good habitations, chiefly the property of French 
gentlemen who reside in the city, as being more pleasant and 
healthy." For the last ten or twelve miles were grassy islands, 
too low and wet for cultivation. ^ 

Then he arrived at the city, which impressed him very favor- 
ably. "The City of Mobile is situated on the easy ascent of a 
rising bank, extending near half a mile back on the level plain 
above ; it has been near a mile in length, though now chiefly in 
ruins, many houses vacant and mouldering to earth ; yet there 
are a few good buildings inhabited by French gentlemen, Eng- 
lish, Scotch, and Irish, and emigrants from the Northern Brit- 

1 Bartram's Travels, p. 394. 2 Jhid.., p. 400. 

8 Ihid., pp. 401, 402, 



238 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

isli colonies. Messrs. Swanson & McGillivray, who have the 
mauacrement of the Indian trade carried on with the Chicka- 
saws, Choctaws, Upper and Lower Creeks, etc., have made 
here very extraordinary improvements in buildings. 

"The Fort Conde, which stands very near the bay, towards 
the lower end of the town, is a large regular fortress of brick. 

"The principal French buildings are constructed of brick, 
and are of one story, but on an extensive scale, four square, 
encompassing on three sides a large area or coui't-yard; the 
principal apartment is on the side fronting the street; they 
seem in some degree to have copied after the Creek [Greek?] 
habitation in the general plan: those of the poorer class are 
constructed of a strong frame of cypress, filled in with brick, 
plastered, and white-washed inside and out."^ 

He was in Mobile on July 31, when he records the thermom- 
eter as at 87°, with excessive thunder and heavy showers of 
rain all day. 

On August 5, he went in a trading-boat to Taensa Bluff 
to visit Major Farmer. That worthy gentleman had invited 
him to s^^eud some days in his family, and may be he saw the 
diamond buckles and heavy gold ring treasured by his de- 
scendants, and doubtless met Mary Elizabeth, who as wife of 
Vobiscey (or Vauxbercy), of Orleanist connection, was to be the 
mother of Mrs. Curtis Lewis of American times. "The settle- 
ment of Taensa," he observes, "is on the site of an ancient 
town of Indians of that name, which is apparent from many 
artificial mounds of earth and other ruins." Farmer had many 
French tenants, and he enjoyed a spacious prospect over his 
extensive plantations on the opposite shore. Bartram observed 
there many curious vegetable productions, particularly a spe- 
cies of Myrica inodora., the odorless wax myrtle (for our botan- 
ist is always exact), which the French inhabitants call the wax- 
tree. It was grown nine to ten feet high in wet, sandy ground 
about the edges of swamps. Its berries are nearly the size of 
bird cherries, and are covered with a scale of white wax, which 
is harder than beeswax and more lasting in burning. Above 
in the fields he found a rich, yellow bloom, a new species of 
Oenothera, our evening primrose, "perhaps the most pompous 
and brilliant herbaceous plant yet known to exist." It is seven 
1 Bartram 's Travels, p. 402. 



WHAT BARTRAM SAW. 239 

or eight feet high, with a daily succession of petals over five 
inches in diameter, of which there are several hundred in all on 
a plant. 

Making an excursion in a boat, he found farther up the 
river ruins of ancient habitations, with loaded peach and fig 
trees, the figs a dark-blue purple and the size of pears. The 
canes and cypress also were of astonishing magnitude. ^ 

On this trip he would land from time to time as anything 
attracted his attention, and on one occasion goes into ecstasies 
over the prospect. Nowhere in literature is there a more naive 
description. 

"What a sylvan scene is here! The pompous Magnolia 
reigns sovereign of the forests ; how sweet the aromatic Illicium 
[star anise] groves ! how gaily flutter the radiated wings of the 
Magnolia auriculata [cucumber-tree], each branch support- 
ing an expanded umbrella, superbly crested with a silver 
plume, fragrant blossom, or crimson-studded strobile and fruits ! 
I recline on the verdant bank, and view the beauties of the 
groves, tEscuIus pavia, [red-blooming buckeye], Prunus Nemo- 
ralis [wild plum], floribus racemosis, foliis sempervirentibus, 
nitidis, ^sculns alba [spiked buckeye], Hydrangia quercifolia 
[seven barks], Cassine [youpon], Magnolia pyramidata, foliis 
ovatis, oblongis, acuminatis, basi auriculatis, strobilo oblongo 
ovato, Myrica, Rhamnus frangula [yellow wood], Halesea [sil- 
ver bells,] Bignonia, Azalea, Lonicera [woodbine], Sideroxylon 
[gum elastic], with many more."^ 

Near the confluence of the Tombigbee or Chickasaw River 
with the Alabama or Coosau he beheld alligators, and just 
within the capes of the former "fine river" he found a lagoon 
containing a green, wavy plain of water-lilies, some being seven 
or eight inches wide and of a lemon yellow. The seed of this 
Nymphcea nelumho (sweet-scented -water lily, water chinque- 
pin) are eaten as a laxative. Up the river, at a steep red clay 
bluff, he saw an old field, with a young forest growth on the 
plantations, still preserving the corn and potato ridges, — zea 
and batata, in Bartram's vocabulary. He siipposed "this to 
be the site of an ancient fortified post of the French, as there 
appear vestiges of a rampart and other traces of a fortress, 
perhaps Fort Louis de la Mobile ; but in all probability it will 

1 Bartram's Travels, pp. 403, 405. 2 i[j)i^_^ p. 406. 



240 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

not remain long visible, the stream of the river making daily 
encroachments on it by carrying away the land on which it 
stood."! 

This is the more worthy of quotation because some have cited 
Bartram as locating Fort Louis on Dog River, below the pre- 
sent city. 2 The fact is that he does no such thing. He locates 
the fort — and does not make the modern error of callino; it 
St. Louis — near St. Stephens. This is too far up, but at least 
shows that tradition in his time correctly placed the fort north 
and not south of the present Mobile. 

Opposite this Tombigbee fort was a swamp, enthusiastically 
described as the richest perhaps anywhere to be seen. As- 
cending the river, he saw on bluffs, as he went along, deserted 
plantations, houses burnt, and ancient Indian villages. 

He returned to Major Farmer's, and had a touch of fever, 
broken by tartar emetic. The major then furnished the bota- 
nist with a negro and horses to go in search of a medical plant, 
which he learned was thirty miles up. He found it, too, and 
says that it was a sjjecies of coUinsonia (citronella tea), diu- 
retic, carminative, and a powerful febrifuge. An infusion of 
its tops was ordinarily drunk at breakfast, and exceeding plea- 
sant in taste and flavor. 

After some time he left Taensa and descended to the city in 
company with Dr. Grant, a physician of the garrison. From 
him he learned that there were few or no bees west of the isth- 
mus of Florida. There was but one hive in Mobile, and that 
lately brought from Europe, the English not finding any there. 
Which was indeed curious, as Bartram says they were then 
numerous on the whole Atlantic coast, even in wild forests.^ 

Bartram then arranged to sail from Mobile to Manchac. 
He had to wait for a boat, and seized the opportunity of a 
vessel to Pensacola to explore the coast. He sailed early one 
morning, and, having a brisk leading breeze, came to in the 
evening just within Mobile Point. They smoked away the 
mosquitoes with fire from driftwood, and rested well that sum- 
mer night on the clean, sandy beach. 

At Pensacola he met Dr. Lorimer of the council, Secretary 

1 Bartram's Travels, pp. 407, 408. 
- Pickett's Alabama, p. 191, n. 
* Bartram's Travels, p. 411. 



WHAT BARTRAM SAW. 241 

Livingston, and "soon after the governor's chariot passed by, 
his Excellency returning from a morning visit to his farm a few 
miles " off. He was introduced to Chester, who commended his 
pursuits, "nobly offering to bear my expenses." ^ 

Returning to Mobile, he caught his boat, that of a French- 
man, the general interpreter for the Choctaw nation. This 
gentleman was going to his plantations on Pearl River, and had 
three negroes along to row in case of necessity. Six miles be- 
low (and therefore near Dog River), they spent the night with 
a Frenchman, and, setting sail next morning, made extraordi- 
nary headway. " About noon they came up abreast of a high 
steep bluff, or perpendicular cliff of high land, touching on the 
bay of the west coast, where we went on shore to give liberty to 
the slaves to rest and refresh themselves. In the mean time I 
accompanied the captain on an excursion into the spacious level 
forests, which spread abroad from the shore to a great distance 
back; observed vestiges of an ancient fortress and settlement, 
and there yet remain a few pieces of iron cannon ; but what 
principally attracted my notice was three vast iron pots or 
kettles, each of many hundred gallons contents : upon inquiry, 
my associate informed me they were for the purpose of boiling 
tar to pitch, there being vast forests of pine-trees in the vicinity 
of this place." ^ Bartram goes on to observe that in Carolina 
they make the tar in pits. 

Continuing southwardly, they passed later between the west 
point or cape of the bay and entered the channel Oleron. 
Bartram had left Mobile sick. He was to learn that beautiful 
swamps and sylvan scenes and piroguing the lower rivers in 
August is not very prudent. When he sailed, he had a pain in 
his head, and his eyes were running. He finally could not see, 
and at his request was taken to Rumsey's, on Pearl Island, 
where cantharides (fly blister), applied between his shoulders, 
gave him a new experience. When he awoke, after a twenty- 
four hours' sleep, he was weak, but had no pain and was in a 
heavenly frame of mind.^ At Rumsey's he met ex-Governor 
Montfort Browne, and was much more pleased with him than 
Haldimand had been. 

Farther we cannot follow him so closely, as he is getting 

1 Bartram's Travels, p. 413. 2 jjj^^^ p. 417. 

3 Ihid., pp. 418, 419. 



242 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

beyond our jurisdiction, although his visit to Manchac is full 
of interest. There he found a large establishment of Swanson 
& Co., Indian traders and merchants. The Iberville had a 
wooden bridge over to the Spanish possessions, but the stream 
was then dry and its bed twelve to fifteen feet above the Mis- 
sissippi. Two miles above, he saw Alabama, a village of the 
remnant of that Indian nation " which inhabited the east arm 
of the great Mobile River which bears their name to this day." 
They came from about Fort Toulouse.^ 

Bartram's eyes still troubled him, and he determined to re- 
turn home. Sailing back to Mobile, his boat ran aground on 
sunken oyster-banks between Dauphine Island shoals and the 
West Cape of Mobile Bay; but the next day a south wind 
raised the sea and they got off, and finally reached Mobile. 
As his route would be overland through the Creek nation into 
Georgia, he shipped his botanical treasures by sea from Mobile. 
He says: "I made up my collections of growing roots, seeds, 
and curious specimens and left them to the care of Messrs. 
Swanson & McGillivray, to be forwarded to Dr. Fothergill, of 
London." He says nothing of the Revolutionary War in these 
parts, — for there was none, • — but is a little uneasy at hearing 
of the murder at Apalache, by the Seminoles or Lower Creeks, 
of emigrants for Mobile. He therefore joined a caravan des- 
tined for the nation. Before leaving, he observed in a garden 
two large trees of Juglans iiecan., and also the Dioscorea hul- 
hifera.) which bears fruit in the leaves two to three feet from 
the ground and tastes like the yam.^ 

His servant or companion was a Mustee Indian, who had been 
in the Choctaw nation and learned their songs and dances, but, 
not conforming to their customs, he had been chased by them to 
Mobile, whence he was going to the Creeks. Bartram's horse 
gave out, and, to keep up with his companions, he had to buy a 
new one from some traders whom they met. It cost him ten 
pounds. The custom of traders is to let their horses graze at 
night, he says, and they do not get ready to start in the morn- 
ing until the sim is high. Then they decamp, the loaded beasts 
falling into single file, urged on with whip and whoop. 

At this lively pace he continued his journey for several 

' Bartram's Travels, p. 427 ; Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, p. 24. 
2 Bartram's Travels, p. 437. 



WHAT BARTRAM SAW. 243 

days, but, when he passed the line of 33° on Mobile River, 
where the Illicium groves cease to perspire oleaginous sweat, 
we leave him, although our interest follows until he arrives, 
via sea voyage, at his father's on the Schuylkill in January, 

1778.1 

^ The expedition of Bartram to the South is one of the important events 
in botanical history, and his book among the classics of that science. The 
edition quoted is the Dublin one of 1793, but it was published in 1791 at 
Philadelphia, where his father had established the earliest botanical garden 
in the United States, one which has recently been purchased by tlie public 
authorities on account of its beauty and value. William Bartram died there 
in 1823. 

All of his plants have not been certainly identified, but the vernacular 
equivalents given above are those of that accurate and learned botanist, 
Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile. He it was that rediscovered Bartram's Myrica 
inodora ; and for him it was that the Halesea was renamed Mohrodendron, 
when the other name was found to have been already appropriated by a 
West Indian plant. He says that Bartram's Magnolia auriculata has dis- 
appeared from the Mobile forests. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

POLITICS. 

Interest during the next few years has so centred in the 
Boston rebels, the Continental Congress of 1775 at Philadel- 
phia, Bunker's Hill the same year, the Declaration of Independ- 
ence in the next one, Valley Forge in 1777, and the French 
alliance the year after, that we are apt to forget there was any 
America outside of the United States. Most of the other 
southern colonies expelled their royal governors in 1775, but 
Governor Chester was in no danger, and presided over the 
council the same as ever. 

Mobilians were in the council. Terry is mentioned in 1766, 
and one of them in 1772 was Jacob Blackwell, also collector 
of customs of the port. He left for London in that year on 
account of his health, and never returned. He died in 1775, 
and Chester appointed his own private secretary, Philip Liv- 
ingston, Jr., to the vacant position. In this year we find 
Charles Stuart a member of the council, although also deputy 
superintendent of Indian affairs at Mobile. Dr. Lorimer and 
Elias Durnford are also mentioned as members later. The 
functions of the council were in part executive. The minutes 
show grants of land, consideration of the Indian question in 
all its phases, regulations as to commerce, roads and pilots, 
elections and military posts. When there was an assembly, 
the two bodies sometimes united in a "representation" to 
the home Board of Trade and Plantations on public matters. 
The principal use of an assembly seems to have been to vote 
supplies. 

There has been an impression that there were no assemblies 
before Chester's time, but this is an error, as we learn from 
Romans, and otherwise. We know that there was one in 1766, 
and that the next assembly, on January 2, 1767, passed an act 
to erect Mobile into a county, and to establish a court of 
common pleas therein; but five years later this was disallowed 



POLITICS. 245 

by the Privy Council at London. At a meeting of tlie council 
in 1767, an election was ordered for another assembly, to be 
held at Mobile on August 11, at Pensacola on the 19th, and 
at Campbell Town on the 25th, returnable on October 11. In 
1766, Pensacola and Mobile returned six members each, and 
Campbell Town two, although no law existed before 1778 
governing the matter. This apportionment continued until 
1771, when the writ was withheld from Campbell Town, be- 
cause it was almost deserted. An act of 1771 with Chester's 
apj)roval made an appropriation for bridges and ferries on the 
road from Pensacola to Mobile, via Perdido River and the 
Village. But then began the political trouble. 

The origin of it is not altogether clear. Governor Chester 
later explained it by reporting to Lord Germain that the gen- 
tlemen of influence at Mobile did not want an assembly, for 
fear that it would pass an act regulating the Indian trade, in 
which they were all interested. Such an act would restrain 
their traders from taking profuse quantities of rum into the 
Indian nations, as had been customary, or at least give these 
traders and their sureties in Mobile much trouble by prose- 
cutions at Pensacola. He says the Mobile members seldom 
attended when there was an assembly. 

On the other hand, the facts seem rather to show popular 
dissatisfaction over the apportionment of representatives and 
certainly with the term of the legislature. 

A writ of election was given to the deputy provost marshal, 
Alexander McCullough, in 1772, and, after due publication by 
him at Mobile February 29, by majority vote of the freeholders 
of Mobile and Charlotte County, William Struthers, John 
McGillivray, Alexander Mcintosh, Rol^ei't Parmar, Henry 
Lizard, Daniel Ward, Edmund Rush Wegg, and Benjamin 
Ward were elected representatives. But the freeholders would 
not execute the required indenture, except with a provision 
limiting the assembly to one year, and a special return of the 
writ had to be made to the council. Four of the six Pensacola 
representatives sympathized to such extent that they would not 
meet without those from Mobile. The governor prorogued the 
assembly twice in vain hopes the Mobile members would attend, 
and then, on the advice of the council, dissolved it April 23, 
on account of such usurpation of the royal prerogative by 



246 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Mobile. His action was approved by the Earl of Dartmouth 
in the name of the king, and Chester was instructed to omit 
Mobile from the next election writ. 

Chester got along without an assembly for some years, mean- 
time, in 1777, inserting Kobert Farmar, John McGillivray, and 
Michael Grant in the commission of the peace for the town of 
Mobile. Next year an assembly was needed to pass militia 
and Indian bills. The apportionment by the government then 
was of four representatives to the districts of Natchez, Manchac, 
Mobile, and Pensacola, each, besides four more to the town of 
Pensacola, because it was the capital; but the town of Mobile 
and Campbell Town were omitted. It was to no avail, for the 
"cantankerous" assembly, as Chester called it, protracted their 
session to thirty-four days without passing the bills, and 
obstructed all business in order to force the governor to reen- 
franchise the two places. They even presented, on November 
25, 1778, a memorial to the "King's Majesty in Council," 
begging that Mobile be reenfranchised, declaring that it is "by 
far the most important of any in the province, for its antiquity, 
commerce and revenue to the Crown, it paying upwards of 
£4,000 annually in the custom house of London alone." The 
representatives of the district at that time were Daniel Ward 
and Peter Swanson, "elected in the room of Robert Farmar, 
deceased," E. R. Wegg, and the speaker, Adam Chrystie. 
The conduct of the assembly was thoroughly approved at Mo- 
bile, as was shown by a letter a few days earlier from the prin- 
cipal inhabitants to "the Speaker and Members of the House 
of Assembly," thanking them for their action in the matter. 
The signers of this paper were Peter Swanson, Buckner Pitt- 
man, George Troup, Daniel Mortimer, Thomas Strother, Jean 
Louis Maroteau, James McGillivray, L. Maroteau, James 
Dallas, Lavall, Charles Roberts, Francis Roberts, William 
Gordon, L. Carriere, William Struthers, Pierre Guilliory, 
John A. Austin, Fran(^ois Fieury, Thre Benoist, Jean Favre, 
Jean Bapt® Lusser, John Mcintosh, Louis Lusser, Walter 
Hood, Barthelemy Grelot, James Colburt, David IVIcCleish, 
Thomas Baskett, Bertrand Nicolas, William Cocke Ellis, 
George Dow, Gilbert Hay, John Mcintosh, Jr., Cornelius 
McCurtin. 

The dispute led ultimately to a memorial in May of next 



POLITICS. 247 

year to the king against Governor Chester's administration, 
and among the signatures of inhabitants are a number of those 
Mobilians. 

The colonial administration was controlled by the home 
government through the Privy Council, sitting at St. James'. 
This body was what was left of the feudal royal council after 
courts and parliament had developed into separate institutions, 
and its powers were limited to commerce and the colonies. 
But its committee, the Board of Trade, which made commercial 
regulations, about this time went to pieces in consequence of 
an attack by Edmund Burke in 1780, and its Mobile acts were 
among the last. 

In 1766 was one requiring the inhabitants to keep their lots 
and half of the street ojjjjosite clear of weeds and nuisances, 
under a penalty of forty shillings fine and the hire of a laborer, 
and also authorizing the Quarter Session to compel them to 
clear off the surrounding woods not exceeding half a mile from 
the town. Three years later, another act of the Board of Trade 
provided for the election by the freeholders and householders 
of Pensacola and Mobile, at their respective churches, of two 
church wardens, two sidesmen, two overseers of the poor, two 
way wardens, and two appraisers. These made up the vestry, 
and chooe parish clerk and sexton, and could make a poor-rate 
not exceeding XIO for Mobile and X30 for Pensacola; but people 
of a different religion providing for their own poor were exempt. 
Power was also given to use the negroes of citizens three days 
in the year to clear and drain the swamps around Mobile, under 
a fine of four "ryals " per day. In the same year was another 
act to prevent the burning of herbage at improper seasons, to 
keep hunters from leaving carcasses of deer near plantations, 
and extending to Mobile a colonial act to prevent danger from 
fire and accidents in the streets of Pensacola. This last seems 
to have forbidden the carrying of fire in the streets unless cov- 
ered and secured, under penalty of a dollar fine or three hours 
in the stocks, or twelve lashes, if a negro. There was also a 
fine of two dollars for firing arms in the streets, or riding or 
driving cattle through the streets at more than a walk. The 
substance of some of these police regulations still survives. 

This section was positively benefited by the eastern revolt. 
Tories driven from Georgia and South Carolina were the first 



248 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

white settlers of what are now Washington, Clarke, and Bald- 
win counties, the ancestors of the half-breed Mcintosh, Manac, 
McQueen, McGirk, and other families to be of note. The 
minutes of council in 1777 show a number of grants on Mobile 
waters to people who were probably fugitive Tories. On the 
"Tombeckby," lands were granted to William Jackson, John 
Mathews, Kobert Abrams, Jesse Wall, William Wall, and 
John Low, mainly near "Basket's Creek." Charles Roberts, 
of Pennsylvania, received a grant on the same river higher up, 
and Alexander Cameron, of South Carolina, one at or beneath 
Black Rock on the west side of Mobile River. Moses Kirkland 
petitioned the council for several tracts, which were granted, 
amongst other lands on the west side of Tombeckby River, about 
six or eight miles below the Indian line at the mouth of Tallow 
Creek. We learn from the minutes that he was late a colonel 
of militia and justice of the peace in Ninety-six District of 
South Carolina, and embodied four thousand volunteers to serve 
the king on the outbreak of the rebellion. He escaped to 
Charles Town, but was afterwards taken and imprisoned by the 
rebels. He finally made his escape to Earl Dunmore's fleet, and 
brought General Howe's dispatches to East and West Florida. 

Before 1776, Alexander, the son of the rich Scotch trader 
Lachlan McGillivray and Sehoy Marchand, was already a 
power among the Creeks. This Lachlan "McGilivray" and 
George Galphin had had greater influence there than any other 
men. Through Alexander the Creeks now opposed the revolted 
colonists of Georgia, who, after Lachlan sailed to Scotland with 
the British on the evacuation of Savannah, confiscated his 
property. John and Farquhar McGillivray (no doubt connec- 
tions of Lachlan) had commercial interests in the loyal colony 
of West Florida. At Mobile, Swanson & McGillivray (after- 
wards Swanson & Strothers) were the great Indian traders, and 
had posts at sundry places even to the Mississippi. Adair 
tells us, however, that the grant of indiscriminate licenses for 
trade cheapened goods too much, and matle the Indians inde- 
pendent and insolent, while it ruined profits ; quite unlike it was 
in the good, monopolistic times before the cession. ^ 

Charles Stuart held a satisfactory congress with the Indians 
in May, 1777, although they complained very much of the pro- 
^ Adair's American Indians, p. 366. 



POLITICS. 249 

fuse introduction of rum. The Indian trade was now confined 
to West Florida on account of the revolt of the eastern colonies. 

The council, as early as 1776, had fears that those rebels had 
designs upon Mobile. Nothing in the way of rejoairs to the 
fort had been done since Mr. Sowers' adverse report some time 
befoi-e, but Durnford, as engineer, was now directed to put it 
in at least provisional repair. His estimate called for 1*930 of 
material, especially for gun platforms. The council recom- 
mended the governor to undertake this and also reinforce the 
post on account of its importance. The defence works were 
accordingly carried out and munitions sent over. As the 60th 
regiment was made up of raw troops, then sickly, too, no men 
could be spared, but the proposition of John McGillivray was 
accepted to raise companies at Mobile. This was done, but on 
a smaller scale than anticipated (being six captains, but only 
sixty-seven privates), despite Chester's offer of the same pay 
as Colonel Stuart's rangers and the same quantity of land 
at the termination of the rebellion as was promised the provin- 
cial troops serving under Sir William Howe. This pay seems 
to have been, for privates, rations and i£2 per month, out of 
which they provided their own clothing. McGillivray was to 
"embody " all whites at Mobile and in the Indian country that 
he could find, and accept savages, too, and then march to assist 
the people at the Natchez. 

In 1778, the leading inhabitants of Mobile energetically peti- 
tioned Dickson, then in command there, to secure reinforce- 
ments, and the council thereupon asked the governor to do 
everything possible. Next year we find General Campbell noti- 
fying Lord George Germain, of the home government, that he 
had on account of the commanding and "centrical" situation 
of Mobile ordered such repairs to the fort and barracks as were 
absolutely necessary. The expense was about £4000, while a 
thorough rehabilitation would have cost over £50,000. The 
council resolved that the inhabitants of Mobile and Pensacola 
take the oath of allegiance before their respective magistrates. 
These as well as those of the Tensaw, however, are noted by 
the governor as showing great readiness in forming volunteer 
companies. But all may not have been so loyal, and even 
earlier we read of deserters from Pensacola who assaulted and 
robbed John Murray, the ferryman at the Perdido. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 

Another visitor was preparing to come to West Florida and 
to take in Mobile, but his errand was less peaceful than Bar- 
tram's. It was Don Bernardo de Galvez. 

The successor of O'Reilly in Louisiana had been in 1770 
Don Luis Unzaga, who in 1776, much to the regret of his for- 
mer subjects, was promoted to be Captain-General of Caraccas. 
On the 1st of February, next year, Galvez, the young colonel, 
entered on the duties of his office. He was but twenty-one 
years old, highly connected, and full of energy. Haldimand 
an'd Gage had been discussing the best method of invading 
Louisiana, and in the first year of his governorship Galvez in 
turn is contemplating the conquest of their West Florida. He 
sends home to Spain in July, 1777, minute statements of the 
fortifications of Mobile and Pensacola; but, although their 
relations were sometimes strained, no war was declared between 
England and Spain until 1779. There was no alliance with 
the revolted colonies, but the Spanish agent Miralles got word 
to Washington of the contemplated invasion of West Florida. 
The Spaniards wished the British conquerors of the southern col- 
onies to be checked by the Americans, and Washington hoped 
the invasion would make Georgia and the Carolinas untenable 
for the English, whom Lincoln was instructed to keep busy. ^ 

From the time Galvez became governor, Oliver Pollock had 
regularly supplied the Americans from New Orleans. The 
Natchez district of West Florida, like the rest of it, remained 
loyal, and the American captain James Willing in 1778 made 
little progress, and indeed had a battle with the inhabitants from 
the river, but was driven off. He then sailed to the Tensaw 
settlements, and we can imagine the reception he would get 
from Major Farmer and his tenants. 

^ 3 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. Ill ; 6 Washington's Works, pp. 475, 542. 



GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 251 

It is said that Pollock came with Willing to Mobile, and 
brought the Declaration of Independence for distribution. This 
famous document was then contraband of war, and Willing 
soon found himself a prisoner in Fort Charlotte. He remained 
in irons there until exchanged in 1779 for Colonel Hamilton, 
of Detroit.^ 

The govei'nor was Peter Chester still, and the general in 
command of the province Camj)bell, with headquarters at 
Pensacola. A brave man he certainly was, but not of the best 
judgment. The Campbell papers — if they exist — would show 
no such careful supervision of Florida from the Mississippi 
to the ocean, no exploration of routes or sounding of bays, as 
with Haldimand. Campbell in peace was careless, if in war 
a fighter. 

He had no very high opinion of his troops. He wrote Sir 
Henry Clinton that his 16th regiment was composed of seven 
companies of veterans almost worn out in the service, and of 
German recruits, and that the eight companies of the 60th were 
"chiefly Germans, condemned criminals, and other species of 
gaol-birds." He said none were to be depended on except the 
veterans, and desertions were numerous. The provincial troops 
he thought even more unfit, being composed mostly of Irish 
vagabonds, deserters from the rebels. Some, if not all, of these 
Germans came from the principality of Waldeck, whose prince 
rented them to the King of England to subdue the rebellious 
Americans. 

Max Von Eelking published at Hanover in 1863 a history 
of the experiences of the Waldeckers, taken largely from the 
journal of the chaplain, Steuernagel. They were sent south 
by Clinton to serve in the expected war with Spain, and we 
learn that they arrived in January, 1779, at Pensacola, of which 
town of two hundred houses he gives an unflattering account. 
The whole province he found little more than a wilderness, 
inhabited principally by Indians, whose scalping propensities 
excited the horror of the Germans. One of the chiefs was 
Brandenstein, a Waldecker himself. 

On the Mississippi, Lieutenant Dickson had 500 men, and so 
pressed Campbell for reinforcements that the Waldecker gren- 
adiers and a number of foot were forwarded thither. At the 
1 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 36 ; Meek's Southwest, p. 90. 



4 



252 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

same time, on August 19, the Spanish authorities in New Or- 
leans recognized American independence and began hostilities 
with about two thousand men, of which fact the English in 
Pensacola had no suspicion. 

In September, 1779, Galvez, immediately after having amid 
great enthusiasm taken the oath of office as Spanish governor 
before the council (cabildo), made a secret dash from New 
Orleans at the Mississippi forts,' and captured them succes- 
sively before reinforcements could arrive. -After five days. Fort 
Bute at the Iberville was carried by storm. Dickson had with- 
drawn his main force nearer Baton Rouge. At this post he 
was attacked, but repulsed attempts at storming. After Gal- 
vez undertook a deliberate siege, Dickson surrendered, giving 
up Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure at the Natchez; but his 
bravery secured full honors of war. 

The news of this traveled slowly, but we can imagine the 
consternation at Mobile in October when the tidings came. A 
courier was sent on to Campbell at Pensacola, but he would 
not believe the report, calling it a Spanish ruse to draw him out 
of Pensacola. On the 23d, another courier arrived there, but 
Campbell for a while still took the same view. He gave orders 
to sail, then countermanded them, and hesitated what to do. 
He finally strengthened Pensacola, but left Mobile to its fate. 
Fortunately, Galvez was content for that season with his Mis- 
sissippi captures, and returned to New Orleans to spend the 
winter in further preparations. ^ 

A report shows that the garrison of Mobile, all told, con- 
sisted of 279 men, besides Mr. Gordon, the minister, who was 
quite active. Commissary Thomas Strother, and the surgeon's 
mate, probably Dr. Grant. There were seventeen negroes as 
officers' servants, and thirty -five more used in one way or 
another, whose owners afterwards claimed compensation from 
the crown. There were represented the engineers, artillery, 
4th battalion of the 60th foot, sixteen of the "United Pro- 
vincial Corps of Pennsylvania and Maryland Loyalists," fifty- 
two volunteers from the inhabitants (of whom fifteen de- 
serted), and twenty-one artificers. Among the volunteers are 
included Captain Walker's provincial dragoons and Captain 

1 2 Von Eelking, Die deutschen Half struppen in iV. ^1., pp. 140-143; 2 Pick- 
ett's Alabama, p. 40 ; 3 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. 126. 



GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 253 

Rees' militia in three canoes, wlio arrived at a critical 
time. 

On February 5, 1780, Galvez sailed from the Balize for 
Mobile with two thousand men, made up of regulars, militia, 
and a few companies of free negroes. He had to encounter a 
hurricane, and some of his eleven vessels were stranded and 
his provisions and ammunition were damaged. But, as with 
the Mississippi expedition, he did not let the elements deter 
him. Despite imminent shipwreck, he persevered, and on the 
9th captured the victualer Brownhall, of sixteen guns, carry- 
ing to Mobile the presents brought by the ordnance ship Earl 
of Bathurst for Superintendent Cameron's proposed Indian con- 
gress. Galvez finally succeeded in landing in the Bay of Mobile 
just below Choctaw Point, probably near our Frascati. It was 
in such disorder, however, that even Galvez at first felt in- 
clined to retreat by land and leave his baggage and artillery. 
But he soon learned that Campbell was not expecting him, and 
acted accordingly. 1 

Meantime there was even greater confusion in Mobile, and 
the citizens hurried into the fort. Galvez erected six batteries 
north and west of the fort and began a brisk cannonade. The 
intervening houses were burned, one of them being the late 
home of Major Farmer, with valuable papers, and possibly the 
church also. We know that the home of the widow of Augus- 
tin Rochon (soiitheast Government and Conception) was burned 
at this time by the English, no doubt to enable the fort the 
better to command the neighborhood,^ i 

Galvez was aware of his having superior forces, and from 
Chakto Point, on March 1, sent a polite request, in French, to 
Durnford to surrender, saying that after a battle he might not 
be able to grant so favorable terms. 

Durnford 's manly reply was as follows : — 

" I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excel- 

^ 3 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, pp. 135, 136 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 52. 

2 Kennedy v. Kochon, 26 Ala. 390. The house of Rev. William Gordon, 
too, was burned by Durnford to prevent shelter to the enemy while erect- 
ing batteries. It was in the heart of town, near the fort, and worth $2,000. 
As Mr. Gordon was loyal and active, besides being a widower with four 
children, it is to be hoped that the claim for reimbursement, which Durn- 
ford indorsed for him in London next year, was favorably considered by 
Lord George Germain, of his majesty's government. 



254 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

lency's Summons to surrender immediately the Fort to your 
Excellency's Superior Forces. 

"The difference of numbers I am convinced are greatly in 
your favor, Sir, but mine are much beyond your Excellency's 
conception, and was I to give up this Fort on your demand, I 
should be regarded as a traitor to my king and country. My 
love for both and my own honor direct my heart to refuse sur- 
rendering this Fort until I am under conviction that resistance 
is in vain. 

"The generosity of your Excellency's mind is well known to 
my brother officers and soldiers, and should it be my misfor- 
tune to be added to their number, a heart full of generosity and 
valor will ever consider brave men fighting for their country as 
objects of esteem and not revenge." 

In his account of it to Campbell next day he says : — 

"Soon after I sent Land Express, a flag was perceived in 
the wood, and I sent an officer to receive it at some distance. 

"This, as I expected, was a summons to surrender to Don 
Bernardo de Galvez's Superior Forces, a coj^y of which you 
have inclosed, with my answer thereto. The Flag was brought 
in Person by an old acquaintance. Colonel Bolyny, who sent me 
a polite card wishing for the pleasure of an interview if pos- 
sible, and Profession of Friendship, although we were National 
enemies, on which I sent Mr. Barde to conduct him into the 
Fort with the customary ceremony, where he dined and contin- 
ued until near five o'clock, drinking a cheerful glass to the 
healths of our King and Friends. 

"During our conversation I found that the Report of the 
Shipwreck was true ; he acknowledged that they had undergone 
great hardships, but would not allow to have lost any men, and 
informed me that they were about 2500 men, but by trusty 
Indians who were sent by me into the camp in the morning I 
learned that a great number were negroes and mulattoes, and 
that they had landed no cannon. 

"Bolyny confirmed that we had cut the cable and just hit 
the Row Galley, but we are certain that three nine pounders 
shot hit her, and as she is gone off I suspect she is well mauled, 
for yesterday morning she was seen opposite the Chactaws on 
a heal, and I suppose is gone to Dog River to repair the damage 
received from our shot. 



GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 255 

"As soon as Colonel Bolyny left me I drew up my Garrison 
in the square, read to them Don Galvez's summons, and then 
told them that if any man among them was afraid to stand by 
me that I should open the gate and he should freely pass. 
This had the desired effect, and not a man moved. I then read 
to them my answer to the summons, in which they all joined in 
three cheers and then went to our necessary work like good 
men. 

"I really believe their (the enemy's) force is greatly magni- 
fied." 

Later he wrote : — 

"Your great good news hath just arrived. I thank you, dear 
Sir, for the consolation it affords me. I need not say I will 
defend Fort to the last extremity. The vessels I can see from 
this are in the mouth of the East Pass, about two miles distant 
from the Fort. And the Galvez Brig is one, and Pickler's 
Florida the other. Near to the Dog River are five ships or 
PoUaccas, and I am informed that three or four are in Dog 
River besides the Row Galley." 

Campbell on March 5 sent the 60th regiment, and on the 
next day the remainder of the Waldeck regiment, fi'om Pensa- 
cola, to relieve Mobile. This was probably Durnford's "great 
good news." He followed himself with Pennsylvanians and 
artillery. He had 522 men in all. It was a march of 72 
English miles through a wilderness without a single human 
dwelling. He arrived at Tensa on the 10th, but spent too 
much time building rafts ; for after several days a breach had 
been made in the walls of the fort, and in the morning, March 
14, the garrison capitulated upon the same terms which Dick- 
son had obtained at Baton Rouge. Captain Durnford mai'ched 
out his small command with flags and dnmis, and they grounded 
arms outside the fort, the officers retaining their swords. 
Hunger and lack of reinforcement from Campbell had had as 
much to do with the surrender as the cannonade, for only 
one man was killed outright, and eleven were wounded, of 
whom two died of their wounds. Durnford wrote, "No man in 
the garrison stained the luster of the British arms." When 
Galvez saw how small a garrison had so long resisted him, he 
was greatly mortified. But he kept his agreement to take them 



256 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

to a British port and land them, upon their promise not to 
serve against Spain or her allies for eighteen months.^ 

Campbell's return march is described as a terrible journey. 
It rained almost continuously, and the troops had to wade 
through mud ankle-deep or through ponds. They could pass 
swollen streams only in single file over fallen trees, and who- 
ever slipped was lost. At night they were surrounded by wild 
animals, the wolves howling frightfully.^ 

Mobile remained in Spanish hands, and was now, as in Bien- 
ville's time, to become a base of operations against Pensacola. 
But Galvez was too cautious to attack the capital at once. He 
spent a whole year in preparation, obtaining troops and vessels 
from Cuba. Campbell could muster but 800 men, and the 
Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, who remained loyal and 
steadfastly refused Spanish overtures, were sometimes more of 
a trouble and menace than a help. The two hundred Choctaws 
and Chickasaws were useful just after the fall of Mobile, in driv- 
ing back the Spaniards who had crossed the Perdido and over- 
powered the British advance posts in order to drive oif horses. 

In January, 1781, General Campbell showed some activity at 
last. On the 3d, he sent Captain Von Hanxleden with 100 in- 
fantrymen of the 60th, eleven militia cavalry, 300 Indians, and 
sixty Waldeckers to drive the Spaniards out of their intrench- 
ments at the French village. This was on the coast, below 
where the Apalache or Tensaw empties into Mobile Bay.^ 

Von Hanxleden arrived on the morning of January 7, and 
several times attempted to storm the intrenchments at the point 
of the bayonet, but in vain. The Sjaaniards resisted manfully, 
while the Indians were of little use. The English did not give 
it up, however, until Captain Von Hanxleden and Lieutenant 
Stirlin of the Germans and the English lieutenant Gordon 
were dead on the field, and two other officers wounded. The 
Spaniards also had suffered severely and lost a magazine by 
fire. The expedition then retreated to Pensacola, but not be- 

^ Campbell's Colonial Florida, p. 119. The correspondence is preserved 
in the British Record Office, and has been published in part by William 
Beer, of the Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans. See also Campbell's 
report to the home government. 

2 2 Von Eelking, Deutsche HUlfstruppen, pp. 144, 145. 

8 2 Von Eelkingjp. 147, places it on the Mississippi, but the dates and con- 
text show this is a slip of the pen for the Mobile waters. 



GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 257 

fore doing honor to the dead. "The body of the captain," says 
Von Eelking, "was in silence laid to rest. The grave mound, 
which was made in the wilderness under a great tree, is said 
later to have been surrounded with a fence by the gallant Span- 
iards, who duly honored the bravery of the fallen." 

In March of this year 1781 came the unequal struggle at 
Pensacola. At first the Spanish admiral from Havana refused 
to cross the bar and insisted on Galvez' proceeding by land; 
but the general shamed him into cooiDeration by leading the 
way in a little Louisianian schooner, exposing himself to the 
full British fire. The British fleet, too, was not inactive. A 
sloop captured near Mobile and brought in to Pensacola as its 
prize a Spanish vessel whose contents showed careful war pre- 
parations. It had Galvez' baggage and necessaries, among 
them twenty thousand dollars in silver, silver plate, excellent 
wine, and all the utensils for a good kitchen. ^ But after a 
long siege, Campbell surrendered in May. Galvez granted him 
the same terms that he had to Dickson and Durnford, and the 
general. Governor Chester, and the troops found themselves 
prisoners of war aboard Spanish vessels bound for New York.^ 
The capitulation was displeasing to the Americans because it 
permitted the conquered British to serve against them in the 
critical times about the Yorktown campaign ; but Washington 
afterwards expressed himself as satisfied with Galvez' acts, 
believing him a true friend of the cause. ^ 

At all events, the war was over on the GuK. West Florida 
had become a Sj)anish province. 

^ 2 Von Eelking, Deutxche Hiilfstruppen, p. 149. 

2 Campbell's Colonial Florida, pp. 135, 140 ; 8 Washington's Works, p. 17G. 

^ Campbell's Colonial Florida, p. 137 ; 8 Washington's Works, p. 176. 



PART V. 
UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 

1780-1813. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 

(Commaudants, — Griinarest, 1781 ; Favrot, 1785.) 

The first Spanish commandant of Fort Charlotte seems to 
have been Jose de Espeleta, who with the local forces assisted 
against Pensacola. But he was in command during the war 
only, and, when the Spaniards had secured undisputed occu- 
pancy of all West Florida, affairs settled down generally to a 
peace footing. From 1783, we know Espeleta was acting 
captain -general in the absence of Galvez.^ 

It would be interesting to know more details than have been 
preserved of the new government of the place. On the Pacific 
coast and in New Mexico the Spanish settlers were either 
grouped about a jjresidio or fort, and so under military rule, or 
in an organized jjiiehlo or municipality, with council (ctyunta- 
7nie?ito) and civil judges {alcaldes). In the latter part of 
1781, after Pensacola had been captured and the British troops 
withdrawn from the province, the title of Grimarest changes 
from "governor ad interim'''' to "Political (or Civil) and Mili- 
tary Governor of the Town of Mobile and its District," so to 
remain with all his successors. This would seem to show Mo- 
bile as partly a presidio but mainly a puehlo, and indeed in 
later years (under Salazar) the commandant was to sign himself 
as "captain of the pueblo infantry regiment." To the east of 
our Blakeley River on a Spanish map are found two or more 
settlements marked "pueblo," and the word occurs in the ar- 
chives at Mobile. But this was evidently in a popular rather 
than a political sense. The usual name, even in official docu- 
ments, was "Plaza de la Movila," although notary Saussaye 
used often the word ckidad, city. 

Spanish rule was the same everywhere, for the paternal gov- 
ernment from the time of Ferdinand saved its colonists respon- 
^ 2 Martin's Louisiana, pp. 5G, 71. 



262 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

sibility by defining- ii 11 offices and prescribing the duties of every 
one. Tlie fatherly love of the king is often officially mentioned 
in the archives. In old Louisiana the change was only gradually 
made, although formally Spanish law prevailed from O'Reilly's 
time.i French law and customs were too deeply rooted to be 
easily eradicated, and it is a fact now too often forgotten that 
Spanish rule was mild and the inhabitants well satisfied. 

The commandant in each district, such as Mobile, was su- 
preme in military and political matters, governing the soldiers, 
appointing inferior judges called alcaldes, or syndics, and him- 
self supreme judge, notary, and custodian of deeds and records. 
There were no taxes except customs duties, but repairs of 
roads could be compelled. The governor and record-keeper 
received fees, — fifty cents per signature and half as much 
again per flourish, — which tends to account for the number of 
notices, decrees, certificates, etc., in the records. 

With Henrique Grimarest's incumbency begin the regular 
series of grants and deeds still preserved, with the judicial jiro- 
ceedings, in heavy cypress boxes in the Mobile Probate Court. 
The deeds, but not the proceedings, have been rendered acces- 
sible to the public by two manuscript volumes of Translated 
Records, completed in 1840 by Joseph E. Caro, under com- 
mission from Governor Bagby of Alabama. The act of the 
Legislature was passed January 9, 1833.^ 

The earliest documents relate to Pass Christian, Cat Island, 
Biloxi, and other places in old West Florida, and were there- 
fore regulated from Mobile. The procedure was by petition to 

* 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 14. See Blackmar's Spanish Institutions in 
the Southivest. 

2 The records at New Orleans were sadly abused and many destroyed or 
taken away by Federal troops in the American civil war. A fire at Pensa- 
cola on October 24, 1811, destroyed much that was there, and pirates more. 
The sub-delegate,. Colonel Don Jos^ Masot, was instructed on closing the 
intendancy there to remove the archives to Havana, but he failed to do so. 
When Jackson captured Pensacola in May, 1818, it was agreed that the 
archives should be taken to Havana, and Masot duly embarked with them 
on the United States schooner Peggy. Corsairs overpowered the Peggy and 
threw the papers overboard, except one box which they kept. So it seems 
nothing ever reached Cuba from Pensacola except some inventories brought 
the preceding year by Don Francisco Gutierrez de Arroyo, the only part of 
the removal order which Masot had permitted him to carry out. Pintado in 
2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 340, 341, 370. 



SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 263 

the governor-general (Galvez until 1786), who either granted 
directly, and instructed Charles Laveau Trudeau, surveyor- 
general of the province, or Grimarest, the governor of Mobile, 
to put the applicant in possession, or perhaps he commissioned 
the governor to do so if on investigation it seemed the land was 
vacant. Trudeau had Vincente Sebastian Pintado as deputy 
from 1796, and was succeeded by him in 1805. ^ 

The first grant near the city was December 18, 1781, to 
Pierre Juzan, his Majesty's commissary for the Indians in the 
Town of Mobile, upon his petition for a tract one league in 
extent on both sides of the river, formerly possessed in British 
times by Henry Lizard and Thomas McGillivray. It is said 
to be bounded on one side by Bayou Cannon and on the other 
by Laprade's Bluff, and thus easily recognized as our Twenty- 
one Mile Bluff. Juzan says that he has no land, and in conse- 
quence of severe losses he desires to go to stock-raising on his 
river tract. 

This is the first instance in these records of re-granting what 
had been British property. The Versailles treaty of peace of 
September 3, 1783, was to allow eighteen months for British 
subjects to sell and leave, and the time was extended six months 
longer ; but this treaty was not yet concluded. While West 
Florida was Spanish in fact, the war continued elsewhere until 
that treaty recognized the independence of the United States, 
and at the same time confirmed East and West Florida to 
Spain. 

The most prominent re-grant was that by Governor Grima- 
rest of Dauphine Island to Joseph Moro, the origin, in fact, of 
the existing title to that historic spot. Moro's petition of July 
31, 1781, is dated at New Orleans, and says that he is an in- 
habitant of that city. Galvez the next day directs Grimarest 
to investigate the matter, and if the land is vacant to put Moro 
into possession and return the proceedings made out "in con- 
tinuation " with the commission, — a substitute for the indorse- 
ments on original papers by officials in our practice. Septem- 
ber 21 of the same year there was a report by Charles Parent, 
Orbano Demouy, Dubroea, and Louis Carriere, who had been 
called on for evidence. 

For some reason the matter was held up over two years, until 
-1 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 338. 



264 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

after peace was declared; for Grlmarest's concession to Moro 
bears date December 5, 1783, after J. B. Lamy had made a 
settlement in tlie centre of the island. In 1785 we find the 
king maintaining there a pilot and four sailors at an expense 
of $696.00.1 

There seem to be no grants or deeds of town lots while 
Grimarest was in command at Mobile, but several times its old 
inhabitants were thus called on in determining what was royal 
domain and what not. In October, 1782, Messrs. Lusser, 
Duret, and Dubroca certify that the small island known as 
Chucfe and "Camp of the Grand Bay," distant a league from 
the town, had never been owned, and they are granted provi- 
sionally to Joseph Colomb. So in December, 1783, Chastang 
senior, Dubroca, and Duret similarly certify that Round Island 
has been possessed by no one except Mme. Maurau, who was in 
possession in 1752 without title. This leads to the absolute 
grant to Francis Krebs, whose memorial sets up that Bienville 
had permitted Mme. Maurau, mother-in-law of Krebs, to oc- 
cupy the island in 1745, and that Galvez had once stopped 
there on returning from Mobile and Pensacola and promised 
Mme. Krebs a grant. 

December 3, 1782, Louis Francis Baudin, called Monluis, 
was granted thirty arpens east of grand Bayou Mathew, 
bounded north by a small bayou called Haron, it "being owned 
by the English and consequently by legal right . . . the pro- 
perty of the Royal Domain." This grant, like others, was 
provisional, until some general regulation concerning land 
claims should be established. He had to withdraw slaves from 
his old place, he says, because of the danger from Talapoosy 
Indians, that being too far off from Mobile. It is not named 
as occupied after his death in 1787, however. The successful 
petition of Jacques de la Saussaye about a fortnight earlier for 
a tongue of land shows that this vicinity (opposite Twenty-seven 
Mile Bluff) had until recently been inhabited by the Indians. 
The neighborhood was much sought after, for we find Grima- 
rest on April 29, 1783, granting to Daniel Ward thirty-five 
arpens on the west of Bayou Mathew, opposite the field of Mon- 
louis, near Narbonne's. It would therefore seem as if others 
than Saussaye thought the Indians would keep their promise 
of solemn peace. 

^ 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 81. 



SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 265 

We find Saussaye acting as notary to the first private deed, 
March 30, 1786, when Favrot, as attorney in fact for Grimarest, 
sold Daniel Ward for $240 a plantation of four arpens front on 
Fowl River, six leagues from Mobile. Grimarest had bought 
the place a year and a half before, and we may imagine lived 
there in the summer, but he had been succeeded {ad interim 
at first) before August of 1785 by our second Spanish gov- 
ernor, Pedro Favrot. This was possibly the beautiful place now 
known as Parker's, whose oak seventeen feet in circumference 
has a spread of over one hundred feet. There still exists an 
irregular inclosure, possibly for cattle or a bull-fight, sur- 
rounded by an earthen wall, and pieces of a cement floor are 
dug up near the fine bluff. 

Favrot was a captain in the army, and, if he was the French 
captain who had been wounded in 1736 at Bienville's disas- 
trous battle of Ackia, he must have been now an old man. 
Just before the change of flag, Louis XV. had conferred on 
him the cross of St. Louis, but he would seem to have re- 
mained at New Orleans and entered the Spanish service.^ 
With him the title "Civil and Military Commandant " takes the 
place of "Governor of the Town of Mobile." 

When the eighteen months allowed the British by treaty to 
change their religion and allegiance, or sell out and leave, had 
expired, the regulation of lands was confided to the governor- 
general at New Orleans. Galvez had been promoted in 1784 
to his father's position of viceroy of Mexico ; and Stephen Miro, 
colonel of the royal armies, was civil and military governor of 
the provinces of Louisiana, Mobile, and Pensacola. The first 
act recorded of his was confirming to Antonio Bassot of Mobile, 
a volunteer in the infantry regiment De Soria, a lot of land in 
that town on or near Galvez Street, with a front of one hun- 
dred and forty steps by two hundred deep, each step being two 
and a half feet. The lot had been granted him by Galvez on 
the conquest of the place, and he had built a house on it. In 
the same year, 1786, Bassot sold it to one Fargg. This seems 
to be the southwest corner of our Dauphin and Conception 
streets, the former street being probably called during a short 
time for the conqueror, who in this year died in Mexico of 
chagrin. He had built a place at Chapultepec, which excited 
^ 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. 109. 



266 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

suspicion that he contemplated a revohition, and his direct 
method of doing everything was inexplicable to the bureaucracy 
of Spain. 

By deed of October 19, 1786, F. Fontanilla (who some years 
later describes himself as laborer or peon in the commissa- 
riat) conveys to J. Colomb a house and lot on Royal Street, 
doubtless on the east side, "cornering on Dauphin Street," and 
bounded by the river. This is the first Spanish mention of 
those streets. The lot has ten toises front by twenty-six toises 
(156 feet) deep, inclosed with pickets, and there are other 
buildings besides the house. The price is |200, of course in 
Spanish silver dollars. The transaction would seem to be 
connected in some way with the sale on the same day by Co- 
lomb to Fontanilla of another house and lot on Royal Street. 
This last deed may be found interesting as giving the usual form 
of private conveyance. It reads thus : — 

"Know all men by these presents, that I, Joseph Colomb, 
an inhabitant of this city, do hereby covenant that I sell really 
and truly to Francis Fontanilla a house of my own, lying 
and being in the city on Royal Street, opposite the house of 
Augustin Rochon, erected on a lot of groimd bounded on the 
river, containing fifteen toises in front by twenty -six toises in 
depth, and having in said house a billiard table with all the 
apparatus ap])ertaining to the same ; and it is the same house, 
lot of ground and billiard table, together with all the buildings 
thereon, that I sell the said Francis Fontanilla for and in 
consideration of the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars cash 
to me in hand paid, by a note payable in three months from 
the date of these presents, the receipt of which note is hereby 
acknowledged, renouncing the benefit of the law non numerata 
pecunia^ and of all others thereto relative : In virtue of which, 
I relinquish and divest myself of the right of property, pos- 
session, useful dominion and ownership which I had and held 
in and over the premises above conveyed and described, and 
cede, renounce and transfer the whole unto the purchaser, 
or his lawful representatives, in order that he may as true 
owner thereof enjoy, possess, sell, alienate, or disjiose of the 
same at his will and pleasure. In virtue whereof I make this 
deed in his favor in token of real delivery, whereby it is 
shown that he has acquired possession thereof, without the 



SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 267 

necessity of any further proof, of which I relieve him ; and I 
bind myself to the eviction, security, and warranty of this sale 
in all the form of law, with my })roj)erty present and to come, 
granting hereby as inserted the clause of guarantee, renoun- 
cing the laws in my favor with the general [provision] in form 
prohibiting the same. And I, the said Francis Fontanilla, 
being present at the execution of this deed, do accept it in my 
favor, receiving therefrom as i)urchased the said house, billiard 
and lot of land, for the sum and as sold to me, acknowledging 
the same to be placed at my disposal, and grant a formal re- 
ceipt. In testimony whereof, the present is done at the Town 
of Mobile on the nineteenth day of October in the year of our 
Lord 178G. 

"Francis Fontanilla. (Seal) JosEni Colomb. (Seal) 
Witness, Chastang, Jr. Witness, Dubroca. 

Before me, Santiago de la Saussaye, (Seal) 

Notary Public. 

"Approved, Pedro Favrot." (Seal) 

A well-known name in the southern part of the present county 
of Mobile is Bosage. The original settler of that ilk was Joseph 
Baussage in 1786 (for the name is variously spelled); and the 
petition and grant in his case, while fairly illustrating the pro- 
cedure as to country lands, certainly rank among the curiosities 
of official correspondence. In f idl they are as follows : — 

"To his Excellency, Stephen Miro, Colonel of the Royal 
Armies of his Catholic Majesty, and Governor-General of 
the Province of Louisiana, etc. 

"Joseph Bousage, an inhabitant of the jurisdiction of Mobile, 
has the honor to represent to your Excellency, that lie has 
been compelled in consequence of the state of his miseiy to 
retire with his wife and children on a piece of land situated 
on Bayou Battree, bounded on the east by Lisloy and on the 
west by Pine Point, which makes a distance of one league in 
front, for the purpose of fishing and planting some corn for the 
support and maintenance of his family; he further represents, 
that the said land has never been claimed by any person, except 
some prisoners who were living on it without title, possession, 
or right, and who have abandoned it a short time afterwards, 
and by Barthelemy Grelot better than eighteen montlis ago, 
who then moved to Bay St. Louis : wherefore your petitioner 



268 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

dares to hope that his unfortunate situation will appeal to your 
Excellency's feelings, and you will be pleased to grant him the 
said tract of land, in order that he may live thereon undis- 
turbed, and conceal from the eyes of the world his poverty and 
misery; taking also into consideration that he is a poor father 
of a family of seven children, who is in trouble and his wife 
sickly; and lastly, this desolated family stretch their arms 
towards your Excellency and humbly entreat your Excellency 
to grant them your Honor's protection. In acknowledgment 
of which they will not cease in offering the most passionate 
prayers to God our Lord for the preservation of your Excel- 
lency's health and prolongation of your days, and of all those 
who are dear to your Excellency. 

"I remain with profound respect and entire submission. 
Excellent Sir, your most obedient and humble servant. Mobile 
this sixth day of October, 1786, 

"Joseph Bouzage." 

Favrot approved these facts, and Miro, on November 7, directs 
that "the commandant of Mobile, Pedro Favrot, shall permit 
the petitioner to establish himself on the tract of land which 
he solicits situated on River Batteree, bounded on the east by 
Ocas Island and on the west by Pine Point." 

Bosage duly went into possession of his Bayou la Batre pro- 
perty and made improvements. He considered his forty arjiens 
depth as beginning, not at the marshy seashore, but at the line 
of tillable land, and acted accordingly. This was saving up 
more "misery" for his family. Ten years later, after he had 
died, his widow, Louisa Budro, was threatened with the loss 
of the back part of the tract in the application of some one else 
for a grant of it. She petitioned the governor-general, and, 
being backed up by the commandant, the Bosage grant was 
corrected so as to begin with the dry land as occupied. 

Most of the new settlers wanted country lands, not in order, 
like Bosage, to hide themselves and their misery from the 
world, but to raise stock, or corn, or tobacco. And it was a 
fine opportunity. The British had largely abandoned the coun- 
try, leaving their well-cleared farms on the Tensaw or "Tom- 
bagbe " to become Spanish royal domain, and thus liable to be 
granted to the first comer, in substantially this form : — 

"The Surveyor-General of this Province, Charles Laveau 



SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 269 

Trudeaii, will put tlie petitioner in possession o£ the tract of 
land for which he prays a grant, containing twenty arpens in 
front with the usual depth of forty, at the place designated in 
the preceding memorial : provided that the same is vacant and 
without causing injury to a third person ; under the express 
conditions, that he will make the customary road and clear 
sufficient ground thereon within the term of one year, and fur- 
ther that this grant shall be void unless the said tract of land 
shall be actually occupied and cultivated within the exact period 
of three years, during which time the petitioner shall not sell 
or in any other way alienate the said land. In consequence 
thereof, let the proceedings of the survey of the said tract of 
land be made out in continuation herewith, and, when com- 
pleted, let them be transmitted to me, in order to provide the 
petitioner with a competent title in due form." 

In this way on August 16, 1787, Cornelius McCurtin, who 
married Euphrosyna, one of Bosage's children, acquired Major 
Farmer's place on the Teusaw River, having a front of eighty 
arpens on each side of the river, bounded north by Mme. Mi- 
Ion and south by Chastang. The only consideration named in 
the petition is that McCurtin had already gone into possession 
and at considerable expense built a house, which would seem to 
show that the hospitable roof which sheltered Bartram had been 
burned, or otherwise destroyed. Farmer, he says, had "aban- 
doned " the place, and, as the major died before the Spaniards 
came, this was true enough. A petition of James Fraser for 
lands of Farmer on the "Tombagbe" shows that he knew of 
this fact, for he ascribes the abandonment of these lands to 
Farmer's widow. An even clearer case of abandonment, per- 
haj)s, was that of Walker, whose lands on the Mobile River 
were granted about the same time to John Joyce. Favrot sol- 
emnly certifies that Walker did "abandon" the place, and the 
petition to which he refers leaves no doubt of it. It recites 
that Walker was killed by his Majesty's troops at the time of 
the siege of Mobile. 

In this way Simon Landry, a mulatto from Baton Rouge, 
gets river lands of "McGiUeveray," probably at Seymour's 
Bluff. "Seymour's " is the nearest the unromantic Americans 
could get to pronouncing Simon'' s French name. Here it is 
that the river makes that remarkable goose-neck or double horse- 



270 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

shoe curve, coming back after several miles to a few hundred 
yards from its starting point, and from the height one has a 
beautiful view uj) and down the stream. This has long been 
the home of the Andrys, and near there many live, intermixed 
with Chastangs, but in their French patois claiming descent 
from the Creole Simon Andry (or L'Andry). 

Peter Juzan thus acquired lands of Dugald Campbell north 
of Bayou Cedrera, Peter Trouillet those of Strahan at the mouth 
of the "Tombacbe," and John Turnbull those of Formand on 
the same river. George Walton under tlie next commandant 
gets Mcintosh's Bluff of twenty arpens front on the Tombagbe. 
Next south had lived a Mr. Sunflower, and his land also went 
to some one desiring, probably, to put in corn and tobacco. 

Only one instance is on record where the petitioner did not 
get what he wanted, and that was when Dominique Dolive asked 
for forty or fifty arpens of Michael Grant's for cattle-raising 
on the east side of the bay, between the widow Rochon on the 
north and the widow Dupont on the south. The refusal was 
not from any consideration for Dr. Grant, but because Dolive 
wanted too much. The general rule was now laid down by 
Miro on July 2, 1787, that grants would not be made, except 
for some very satisfactory reason, of more than twenty arpens 
front by the usual depth of forty. Dolive, like a wise man, 
then filed a new petition for twenty arpens front, and obtained 
the nucleus of the Dolive possessions at the mouth of the Apa- 
lache River. 

Somewhat higher up was the De Lusser Tract on Tensaw 
River. This Louis Duret bought later of the heirs for forty 
dollars on time. Outlying proj)erty was sometimes undesir- 
able because of fear of Indian outbreak. 

And yet as a rule the Spanish succeeded to the friendship 
which the savages had generally entertained for the French. 
In the winter of 1781-82 there was a visit of Creeks to Mobile. 
LeClerc Milfort was a Frenchman who at that time lived among 
them, and was later to return to France and publish a book on 
his experiences. Among the Indians he was chief and in 
France a general, so that his book has a unique value. He 
tells of the traditional orifrin of the Muscosrees in caves on the 
Red River, and of this expedition which he now led to visit the 
aboriginal seat of the race. His followers consisted of two 



SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 271 

hundred braves from Little Talassee. After a time they went 
on west, hunting- by the way, and returned home next spring 
by way of the Ohio River. ^ On June 22, 1784, a vast con- 
gress of Indians was held at Mobile, presided over by Miro. 
Here were represented almost all of the tribes which had been 
jjreviously identified with our history. Among them were 
prominent even the Chickasaws, as well as the Choctaws and 
Alabamas, and treaties of alliance were made with all.^ The 
Indian trade rapidly became important. 

But foreign commerce was all but dead. Spain's policy al- 
ways was to forbid her colonies to trade with any other coun- 
try, and at the same time she prohibited every industry, like 
raising tobacco, olives, or grapes, which would compete with 
the mother country.^ This system was a severe one for Mobile 
and old Louisiana generally, and in fact the regulations were 
more or less evaded, even by the provincial authorities. In 
1782 changes were made in the matter in favor of New Or- 
leans and Pensacola, where were custom-houses, while no men- 
tion seems to be made of Mobile. But a better time was 
coming. July 24, 1784, a trade concession was granted in 
favor of James Mather, of New Orleans, he contracting with 
the government to employ two vessels under the Spanish flag 
and supply all that was needed for the Indian trade at Mobile 
and Pensacola. We soon find Mather confining himself to 
Mobile and William Panton operating at Pensacola, where he 
lived, after being driven by the American Revolution from 
Carolina and Georgia. Their vessels loaded at London, for 
the Indians had learned to prefer English goods, and they took 
the place in business left open by McGillivray's flight. The 
local trade, too, must have been something, as in 1785 Mobile's 
population was 746.* The next year the home government, 
against the protest of Mather and Panton, much curtailed com- 
mercial privileges. And yet it was rather as to source of 
supplies than from any niggardliness ; for we find the crown 
supplying anniaally for the Mobile Indian trade, doubtless for 
presents and other subsidies, $10,000. The local expenses of 

^ Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 230. 

2 3 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 160. 

^ Blackmar's Spanish Institutions in the Southwest, p. 297. 

■* 3 Gayarrd's Louisiana, pp. 153-156 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 77. 



/ 



272 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

the king in 1785 were about $11,000, as follows: governor, 
12,000; chaplain, $360; sacristan, $180; chapel, $50; English 
interpreter, $180; storekeeper, $600; adjutant, $300; guard, 
$180; adjutant of artillery, $300; armorer, $360; surgeon, mate, 
and nurses, $1,140; patron and hands, $1,296; besides $1,080 
also mentioned for commissary and armorer.^ 

^ 2 Martiu's Louisiana, pp. 81, 83. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

UNDER FOLCH AND LANZOS (1787, 1791). 

In three years since the last census the population of Mobile 
doubled, for in 1788 it is given as 1,468, against only 265 at 
Pensacola, which had fallen off one half. This should indicate 
prosperity, but at aU events land was not dear even in town. 
Ruiz, a free negro, in 1788 sells John Joyce a house and lot 
on the corner of St. Charles (St. Joseph) and St. Francis (St. 
Michael), opposite Mr. Orbanne's, for -flOO. Joyce in the 
same month of April buys a lot ten toises front on Royal, and 
extending twenty-six toises to the river, for 125 cash, and has 
a house thrown in. This was situated second north of our 
St. Michael, opposite Narbonne's lot, and south (north?) of 
Dubuisson's. 

Next year the heirs of Jean Baptiste de Lusser, deceased, 
— viz.. Cabaret de Trepy and Hazeur de Lorme, of New Or- 
leans, — seem to have sold all the De Lusser land south of the 
fort.i 

The names of all the De Lusser heirs are not given. De 
Trepy and De Lorme seem to represent them under a "letter of 
attorney." Pierre Marie Cabaret de Trepy was a chevalier of 
the order of St. Louis, and is in the title as husband of Mar- 
guerite Chevalier De Velle, probably daughter of Constance 
De Velle. Louis Francis Xavier Hazeur de Lorme, on the 
other hand, is grandson of Captain (Joseph Christophe) De 
Lusser, and also his executor. De Lorme must be a son, there- 
fore, of Manon Hazeur. On May 14 they made a private deed 
to Louis Duret, of course before Folch, wherein, for a note of 
forty dollars due at one year, they sell a lot of the usual dimen- 
sions, bounded north by land purchased by Miguel Eslava at 
public auction, and on the south by Duret. This lot would 
^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 96 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 99. 



274 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

therefore seem to be in the square west of our Royal and south 
of our Eslava Street. Duret was a lieutenant of militia, and 
died in 1790. Folch, at the request of the same De Trepy and 
De Lorme, five days after the private deed, decrees the sale of 
the other lots of J. B. Lusser, and they were accordingly sold 
at auction, all being east and across the "street" from Es- 
lava's. The purchasers, beginning from Duret's on the south 
and coming north to the esplanade, were as follows, each 
extending from the street eastwardly to the river : ^ — 

(1) Fifty feet front, bought by Alby, the fort carpenter, 
for |>45; (2) Forty feet front, by the negress Mary Josephine, 
for 130; (3) Fifty -four feet front, by John B. Ham, for |54; 
(4) Sixty-two feet front, by the negro Joseph the blacksmith, 
for $40; (5) Sixty-two feet front, by the mulatto Honore 
La Pointe, for $40 ; (6) Seventy-six feet front, by the mulatto 
Petit Jean, for $30. Four years later Honore, who had 
moved away, sold his lot, with a house on it, to William 
Mitchell, for $120. The average price, therefore, for the 
river front at this point, — the site now of the Wilson power- 
house and of many buildings, — was considerably under a dollar 
a foot. 

Eslava lived to be not only an important official but a large 
landowner in this part of the country. Family tradition de- 
scribes him as a tall, soldierly man, without beard, and says 
that he came originally from San Sebastian in Spain to the 
City of Mexico, where he was manager of the mint, and thence 
went to Natchez. In a later petition he says that he was public 
storekeeper (commissar^) for the king of Spain at Natchez, 
1782-84 ; and we learn from this and other papers of his that 
he occupied the same position {Guarda Ahnacen GeneraT) at 
Mobile from 1784 through all the Spanish rule. In addition 
he was also at some period collector of customs, and in 1793 
^^ Ministro Princii^al de la Real Hacienda,'" or treasurer, at 
Mobile.2 He had to be present officially, according to the ar- 
chives, at all public acts affecting royal property and contracts. 
Such presence is spoken of as his "intervention." He was 
also superintendent of the hospital. 

There is something perplexing about his early purchases, 

' Mobile Translated Records, p. 97. 
2 See 3 American State Papers, p. 560. 



UNDER FOLCH AND LANZOS. 275 

which were mainly at auction. Although in 1789 he had a 
house, said to have been brought from Spain, two years later 
we find him petitioning for land between the De Lussers and 
public lands, in order to build and thus escape the "exorbitant 
rent " which he was paying. The lot granted on this occasion 
was but sixty feet front by one hundred and twenty feet deep ; 
while the tract on which his house was built had over seven 
times as large a frontage, being no doubt the auction purchase. 
It extended from our Royal to St. Emanuel, and from our 
Monroe to Eslava. The description of his place, the site now 
of homes of all degrees, in a deed of 1794 is picturesque, and 
reads thus : — 

"A high house erected on a certain lot of land containing 
four hundred and sixty-two feet in front, on the side of the 
river, by three hundred and twenty-six feet in depth, fronting 
on the woods, bounded on the north by the fort of this town, 
and on the southwest by house of the deceased Duret. The 
land is enclosed by new cypress pickets, with all the fruit trees, 
gardens, kitchen and all other buildings thereon." ^ 

Rations originally were distributed by him, as general store- 
keeper, to the troops and government employees, from a house 
on St. Charles Street. But when it became old, Eslava with 
the permission of the commandant abandoned it, and erected 
one south of the fort, near his own residence. This was a good 
move, and nearer the warehouse of 1793. On July 16, next 
year, we find the original lot granted to Mary Aygue. 

There was a mysterious transaction, probably connected 
with an official valuation of 1793 stfll preserved, by which 
Eslava sells his own place to Leonard Marbury. The con- 
sideration was 14,060, of which $2,560 was cash, and the 
balance was to be paid on the arrival of his schooner from the 
north, which was to be about the end of the year. And Mar- 
bury 's ship came home, for next year he sold the place for 
ten dollars less to John Joyce. But in some way Eslava re- 
purchased it. 

Eslava was to have considerable trouble with his titles in 
American times. The De Lusser purchase, even where he 
lived, was unfavorably regarded, and required a special act of 

1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 150. For map see Deed Book 27, N. S., 
p. 527. 



276 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

the Congress of tlie United States, May 21, 1824,i for its vali- 
dation in the hands of his heirs. 

We now first meet William Fisher also, who was in later 
years to become, like Eslava, a great landowner. In May, 
1790, he buys for (|500 cash from John Arnot, who got it from 
P. Jusan, a lot on the south (west?) side of St. Charles, at the 
corner of St. Francis, having one hundred and thirty feet front 
by seventy-one deep. 

Captain Manuel de Lanzos seems to act as commandant at 
Mobile from 1790, and in 1792 Baron Francis de Carondelet 
was governor-general. Lanzos was, during his two or more 
terms, to become thoroughly identified with the place. He is 
said to have come from Valencia in Sj)ain to Peru, and thence 
to Mobile. After his incumbency he lived in New Orleans. 

As a witness to a deed of June 12, 1792, we now first see 
John Forbes, to be, not many years later, so important a factor 
in Indian trade. His house, Panton, Leslie & Co., may even 
before this date have oj^erated in Mobile, but apparently they 
had not yet become landowners. It is not until 1795 that 
we find him mentioned as a landowner, having on St. Charles 
some small cabins at the corner of a street which we take to be 
St. Francis. 

In August, 1793, was an auction sale in Mobile of the lands 
of another non-resident named La Fargg, at the instance of 
his attorney in fact, Francis Durel. 

"In the town aforesaid, on the fifth of the month of August, 
1792," according to the Translated ilecords,^ "Francis Durel 
having requested the sale and transfer of the lot of land and 
cabin conveyed by Antonio Bassot in favor of the above named 
La Fargg, and desiring to make sale thereof; Therefore I, the 
Commandant, attended by two official witnesses, went on this 
day at ten o'clock a. m. on the lot above recited, and on order- 
ing the sound of the drum the said Durel prayed by saying : 
Is there any one who wishes to purchase a lot of ground with a 
small house thereon, the said lot measuring one hundi-ed and 
twelve feet in front, be it more or less, by the corresponding 
depth, as the property of Mr. La Fargg? In consequence of 
which, James Nadeau offered most for the said premises, and 
the same was thereupon struck off to him for the sum of $150 
^ 6 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 311. ^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 132. 



UNDER FOLCH AND LANZOS. 211 

cash as specified above. In faith whereof, the said James Na- 
deau, the two official witnesses, and I the said Commandant, 
have signed the present act of sale," etc. 

Thereupon Durel made a deed to Nadeau, but Pierre Juzan 
afterwards bought from Nadeau at a trifle less. 

Miro had granted Pierre Trouillet, of Mobile, a lot of ground 
on Royal Street, "fronting the Government House," which 
later maps show to have been at the southeast corner of Royal 
and Government streets. Lanzos interfered and refused to 
put him in possession, because it was too near the fort, — which 
Trouillet admits is the case. But the lieutenant bought a forty- 
foot lot adjoining from Nadeau, and then obtained a grant of 
twenty feet of the lot before refused him.^ This Trouillet pro- 
perty thus seems to be an encroachment on the esplanade of the 
fort, — the first of record. Although, as to country lands, from 
this time the duty of putting in possession again devolves on 
Trudeau or his deputy, the commandant still acts in regard to 
city lots. But a few months later, Lanzos, under commission 
from Carondelet, puts F. Baudin in possession of a lot sixty 
feet front on Royal, between Trouillet and the fort. And yet 
the fort might be important again. 

What has been called the Spanish Conspiracy has excited 
much interest, particularly in Kentucky, where it blasted sev- 
eral characters. For James Wilkinson, the United States 
general, was its head, and John Brown, representative in Con- 
gress, Judge Sebastian of the Court of Appeals, Hary Lines, 
and other prominent men, were deeply implicated. 

In its beginnings it might be called a patriotic movement, if 
patriotism consists of love of home and country, and not in the 
worship of a flag which then represented seaboard and not 
Kentucky interests. The colonies had just achieved their inde- 
pendence, and the pioneers who had won a home in the wilds 
felt that the government across the toilsome mountains was, 
in courting the aid of Spain, willing to leave the Mississippi 
closed and Kentucky shvit off from her only commerce. Even 
Virginia, they thought, was reluctant to have them become 
independent of her, and the movement begun in 1785 for 
Kentucky's admission to the Union was finally realized only in 
1792, after nine conventions. 

^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 138. 



f 



278 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

SiJaiu encouraged the movement for independence, and en- 
deavored by pensions, promises, and concessions to win the 
leaders, with the object of having the district become either a 
part of her Gulf provinces or an independent country under 
a Spanish protectorate. Spain had made no treaty recog- 
nizing the United States, but had an agent, Gardoqui, in the 
east. 

The plan was originally suggested by Navarro when intend- 
ant, adopted at Madrid, and carefully engineered by Governor 
Miro, who after Navarro's departure in 1788 made himself 
intendant, too. Miro was very popular with the Americans and 
Spanish subjects alike. ^ 

The pensioners went on receiving money, but, from the time 
when the new American government under the Constitution of 
1787 felt itself firmly in power and a national sentiment 
developed, the conspirators gradually lost their hold. Some, 
like Wilkinson, were able to turn coat and sail with the new 
wind; others went on blindly to their own destruction. The 
danger in Carondelet's time was of an invasion of Louisiana 
by the Americans, not of the Spanish annexation of Kentucky 
planned by Miro. 

From 1793 the Mobile deeds, and among them one of Pierre 
Trouillet, contain militia titles, — lieutenant, captain, etc. It 
was at this time that Governor Carondelet regularly organized 
the local military over Louisiana and West Florida, and Lanzos 
had masons at work on Fort Charlotte. An inspection of 
"Fuerte Carlota " was made in August, 1793, by Nicolas Man- 
goula, Josef Barriales, and Juan Beson, while Miguel Eslava 
was present with others. This seems to have been in addition 
to a general overhauling by John Joyce as contractor early in 
the year, which, after formal examination by Juan Alvi and 
Antonio Espejo as carpenters, Nicolas Mangoula and Charles 
Lalande as masons, and Bertrand Nicolas and the free negro 
Josef Lusser as smiths, had been didy accepted by Lanzos for 
the crown. We find Orbanne Demouy now contracting to 
supply troops and hospital with meat at 3| silver "sueldos " per 
pound ; and oath of allegiance was exacted from foreigners, like 
Nadeau and Langevin of Mobile, and J. B. Martin of Fish 

^ 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 100 ; 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. 192 ; Green's 
Spanish Conspiracy, passim. 



UNDER FOLCH AND LANZOS. 279 

River {Riviera de Pescado). A new wharf and warehouse 
were built. Everything was military. 

The events of this year were momentous. France a re- 
public ; her king imprisoned and then guillotined ; and all the 
other countries looking on aghast, or combining to crush the 
revolution. The Spanish king declares war against France at 
Aranjuez in March, and the cedula was published at Mobile in 
August. This and other proclamations call on the people to 
contribute themselves and their means to oi3pose the disorder 
and impiety of that country. A royal proclamation, published 
at Mobile as elsewhere, invited back deserters from the army 
and navy; and we find the woods near the town cleared, no 
doubt for military as well as for the sanitary reasons named 
by Lanzos. The people of the United States were in sym- 
pathy with the new republic, and the French ambassador 
Genet carried things with a high hand over in the States. He 
was even planning to raise an American army and reconquer 
Louisiana for France. 

It was to meet this that Carondelet was active, fortifying 
forts and raising troops. At Mobile two companies were 
thus mobilized, — one of infantry and one of cavalry. All 
classes seemed loyal to the Spanish cause ; but perhaps the old 
French remembered O'Reilly at New Orleans. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 

The many official proceedings by the commandants whicli 
have survived Would, if given in detail, furnish material for sev- 
eral volumes ; but even a selection will show much of the public 
customs of the time and the private life of the people. 

For the first few years transactions are in French, or in French 
and Sj)anisli too ; but, as the hold of Spain grew stronger, hers 
became the sole official language. The Trouillet division of 
1786, before Favrot, was in French, but the partition of Louis 
Duret's estate in 1795, for instance, was altogether in Spanish. 

We find the commandant exercising jurisdiction, often a very 
summary one, over almost every kind of dispute, including 
contract, attachment, and damages, and are enabled to follow 
up the procedure on account of the convenient practice of writ- 
ing out even the original papers "in continuation " on consecu- 
tive sheets. Where a petition requires notice, the command- 
ant's order, therefore, comes next after the petition; then the 
notary, or later two official witnesses, gives notice and certifies 
that fact. At the trial the testimony is taken down in writing 
under oath, and the decrees and subsequent proceedings follow 
in order, — all these papers being stitched together and pre- 
served as archives. 

We are told that the court (tribunal) was informal, but quite 
the reverse was true in Mobile, at least under the early com- 
mandants. We do not find lawyers in the American sense, but 
clerks or notaries aided the parties in their petitions where the 
cases were not viva voce. Criminal causes were tried before 
the same courts as civil, perhaps with official defending coun- 
sel. On giving security for costs, appeal lay to the supreme 
tribunal at New Orleans, thence to St. Jago de Cuba,, and 
thence to Spain. In criminal cases the appeal was only in 
capital offences, and, from the expense, practically did not 



JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS, 281 

exist. Punisliment was mild, generally a fine or stocks, and 
serious crimes were rare. The alcalde, like our justice of the 
peace, heard civil and criminal causes summarily and without 
written proceedings. His jurisdiction was limited to com- 
plaints in which the matter in dispute did not exceed twenty 
dollars.^ 

On March 15, 1786, we find Pierre Trouillet petitioning for 
dissolution of the partnership with his brother Jean and for 
division of the property, Pierre wishing to leave for New 
Orleans. 

The business in which they were engaged would seem to be 
naval stores, at least in part, for one of their assets was a claim 
of 10,779 piastres against the king for "brais et godrons." 
Their account has also survived for such supplies to a number 
of vessels during the years 1782-85, all as furnished under a 
contract with Commandant Favrot. The slaves were valued 
at an average of 500 piastres, horses at sixteen piastres, cattle 
at twelve each. There were a number of accounts due them, a 
note of Mr. Miguel Eslava for 381 piastres for one, and they 
owed considerable also. They owned a house, a frame filled in 
between the posts and covered with bark. It was five feet 
above ground, with cellar below, which had a brick wall. The 
building was ceiled and composed of two rooms, hall, two clos- 
ets, a double chimney, and had a gallery all around. Outside 
were kitchen and garden. The whole was within a picket 
fence, and on the corner of the street. This place was valued 
at 450 piastres, and went to Jean in the division. 

The proceedings began with a petition to Favrot, the ap- 
pointment of Genier and Dubroca as commissioners on the 
nomination of Pierre and Jean respectively, all in the presence 
of Santiago de la Saussaye, the notary public. Then was 
made out a list of debts due to and those due by the firm, 
signed by parties, commissioners, commandant, and notary ; and 
next one of some twenty-eight slaves, with values varying ac- 
cording to age, and also including house and animals. It was 
thus found that each should receive 8,985 piastres 6| escalins, 
and the equivalent was allotted them respectively. Both 
brothers on March 24, 1786, signed at the end in token of full 
satisfaction. 

1 2 White's New Recopiladon, pp. 693, 697. 



282 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

In the course of the proceedings it is noted that there was a 
difference of forty per cent, between hard money and the paper 
current in the colony ; but where necessary the paper values are 
reduced to coin, and the settlement is made on that basis. 

Commandants sometimes exercised very summary powers in 
the collection of debts. In this same year, for instance, we 
find Favrot enforcing a claim against William Loyson, then a 
trader in the " Tinsa " country, although in British times he 
had been a silversmith at Mobile. 

Loyson had mortgaged some negroes to De Lande Dapremond, 
of New Orleans, and did not pay the debt. John Linder, Jr., 
of the Tensaw district, became his surety for speedy payment, 
taking a hypothecation of the negroes, according to which on 
forfeiture the negroes should be sold at the gate of the fort. It 
appears that he made default, and in consequence Favrot sent 
the notary Saussaye and three soldiers over by canoe to Ten- 
saw to imprison Loyson and seize his property. This was done 
in the presence of John Linder, lieutenant of police, and all 
of his property inventoried and brought to Mobile, where it 
was appraised and sold. He had deerskins, money, bear oil, 
draft of Charles Hall on John Joyce, etc., valued in all at 266 
piastres, 4 reals, hard money, which then varied fifty per cent, 
from paper. Of this there were in gold two "portugaises," a 
coin worth apparently something over 12|^ piastres. The 
expenses of this five-day trip were thirty and a haK piastres, 
of which Genier, who owned the canoe, received three, and the 
three rowers three piastres each. The notary charged thirty 
reals a day. 

After all, the slaves were not sold, for the two Linders were 
in Loyson's debt for merchandise, and he was permitted to 
return home until the younger Linder came back from New 
Orleans. When that happened, the affair was settled and the 
slaves returned. Loyson's attachment became a matter only 
of record, — signed by himself, the Linders, and Favrot. 

The proceedings in the matter of FranQois Robert in 1786 
further illustrate the extensive powers of the commandant. 
Thomas Durnford, of New Orleans, on June 29 petitioned 
Pedro Favrot, alleging that he had delivered to Robert goods 
to be sold on Durnford 's account to the value of 438 piastres 
and two escalins, besides advancing him 296 piastres and three 



JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 283 

escallns ; but liad been informed by John Linder that Robert 
had abandoned his boat, the St. Fran^oise, and had with one 
Simon left the country to go among the Indian nations. An- 
nexed is an invoice of the goods delivered, including tafia, 
sugar, mahy (maize?) ingrain, pieces of Marly (gauze), tobacco, 
colored linen, pepper, plates, and wine. The advances were in 
part through a draft on Messrs. Mather & Strothers for 190 
piastres. 

Favrot lost no time in the matter, and in fact seems to have 
acted upon earlier and independent information. He knew 
Francois Robert from having granted him a passport to trade 
in the country of the "Tinsas," and was notified June 27 of his 
decamping by the same John Linder, civil lieutenant of that 
district. Linder's note is in English. The commandant be- 
took himself to the boat with Saussaye, the notary, and seized 
it and its remaining contents. The cargo was inventoried, and 
deposition of the mate, Fran9ois Olivier, taken to the fact of 
flight and fraudulent bankruptcy. Favrot found that one 
Lafond, who had come from the Ohio {Belle Riviere) under 
Miro's pass (for passes were necessary for travelers), and 
Simon, of the Tensaw district, had disappeared at the same 
time, the three men carrying off a canoe of Mr. Linder and 
five of Simon's own slaves. They had apparently taken the 
Tombigbee route to reach "Fort Comberland." 

Claims to the amount of 768 piastres were filed with the 
commandant, who sold the cargo for 546 piastres, and the boat, 
including sails, tackle, and anchors, to Durnford for 200 more. 
The fees paid were as follows : To the commandant as judge, 
for four sittings, including writings and signatures, twelve 
piastres; to the notary for four sessions and writings, nine and 
a half piastres, besides six and a half more for copies. A 
transcript and the receipts are annexed, and the whole file, with 
inch margins, makes up a respectable booklet of rough-edged 
paper, which is preserved entire. 

Pretty much the same proceedings were taken against Fran- 
cois Simon, the depositions being in English before "John 
Linder, J. P." Among the claims is that of Turnbull & 
Joyce, merchants, for 42 piastres for goods, such as soap, blan- 
kets, fishing-line, powder and tobacco. The goods were bought 
in 1785 and 1786 of Mather & Strothers,,but Turnbull & Joyce 



284 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

receipt, apparently as their successors, for tlie forty-two dollars 
and a "picaillon" (picayune), or half rial, in paper. 

The commandant paid the debts out of the proceeds of pro- 
perty of Sieur Simon found by Saussaye and witnesses at his 
place, "Bonne Eau," four leagues from Fish River. The goods 
seized were clothing, furniture, cows, etc., but the house (ca- 
banne) was worthless, and the bread in the furnace was spoiled 
by the rain. At the appraisement and sale Jean Chastang 
was present, having been appointed to represent Simon, and 
acting under oath as "Deffenseur." Notices were publicly 
posted, and the sale opened with the drum at the usual place. 
Old pantaloons, coats, socks, cups, boiler, mill, vinegar, salt, 
cows, seine, and the other articles went to various bidders, real- 
izing a total of 404 piastres seven escalins, which was twenty- 
nine dollars six escalins more than the debts. This balance 
was held subject to the order, not of Simon, but of Governor- 
General Miro. 

Simon was captured by Ben James among the Choctaws, 
near the mouth of the " Black Warrior " River, and imprisoned 
at Mobile, where Saussaye induced him to acknowledge the 
claims paid as substantially correct; but the file closes without 
indication of his fate. The other two whites escaped safely to 
the Chickasaws. Mr. Bely Chancy (also called Baley Chene, 
Bailey China, etc.) figures considerably in the Tombigbee 
land titles, but he previously lived in the Tensaw district and 
was involved in several controversies now difficult to under- 
stand. On one occasion he accused Haisel McWilliams of 
stealing a negro, and McWilliams in reply had Josiah Fletcher 
in 1787 make before John Linder, J. P., an affidavit in 
English which shows up his accuser in a remarkable light. 
The paper reads as follows : — 

"Mr. Josiah Fletcher Declares and Says that M. Bailey 
China took a Negro Girl and headed her up in a hogshead to 
keep her concealed at St. John's Bluif on board of a Vessel in 
East Florida about four years past, where her Master, Mr. 
Summerling, found her in his j^ossession, and further the Depo- 
nent declares and says that after said Negro was found in the 
possession of Said China he the Said Deponent saw a place 
where [which] the said China had made underground in his 
house where he might hide himself in case of necessity and had 



JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 285 

undermined a passage to make his Escaj)e, and had two guns 
placed at the inside with springs so as to do Execution in case 
any one entered at the door, while he escaped at said passage 
underground." 

Some of the transactions in which Chaney was concerned at 
least illustrate the uncertainties of border life. He once had 
some controversy with George Phillips about the title to a negro 
boy named Ben, "swapped" for another in Savannah before 
his coming to Mobile, as testified to by Gerald Byrnes. At 
another time he got back a stolen slave. One James Danley 
met a trader named Balay in the Talapuche (Creek) nation and 
exchanged negroes with him, but on reaching Mobile found 
himself sued by Bely Chaney for the newly acquired slave. 
Cheney proved to Favrot's satisfaction that he had previously 
bought this Moses from William Tibbs at St. Augustine, East 
Florida, for 200 piastres. The Creek trader Balay had ex- 
changed stolen property for good, and the commandant com- 
pelled Danley to give up the negro to Chaney. The trader, 
however, had some thirty or forty head of cattle in the Tensaw 
district under the charge of Charles Hall, and on Danley's 
petition the commandant directed John Linder to sequestrate 
the cattle until Balay returned Danley's negress or her value. 

The names of a number of Americans are given in these 
papers as bad men who steal horses, guns, and the like, and 
make off among the Choctaws to hide. Many papers relate 
to the sale of negroes, and others show them stolen and taken 
to the Indian nations, where it was difficult to recover them. 
Some proceedings also indicate that the commandant received 
negro testimony even against white. It was in this manner that 
the widow of William Lanham recovered some of tlife property 
which Thomas Bates had received from her husband, and was 
trying to retain on the pretext of having lost the things by 
theft. 

It would seem that Lanham had gone to "America," — the 
common Spanish name for the United States, — had been 
killed there by soldiers, and that Bates had brought his pro- 
perty from East Florida over to Mobile. The inventory em- 
braces slaves, wearing-apparel, and apparently goods of a dry- 
goods stand. In the list we find, of course, pantaloons, coats, 
shirts, socks, etc., and also silk gauze and dresses, white linen, 



286 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

muslin handkercliiefs, table-cloths, napkins, skeins of silk, 
thread, gloves, besides teacups and plates of Delft ware (fay- 
ence), knives and forks, tin spoons and plates, a writing-desk, 
spurs, scales and weights, all closing with two suits of silk, 
'"''couleur de Hose.^^ The widow had come from South Carolina 
to reclaim her husband's things, but, in consideration of the 
surrender of the slave Moses, she gives up all interest in these 
articles. Even if Lanham's store had been elsewhere, this list 
shows what was handled at some Gulf town in Spanish times, 
and could not have varied much from goods then sold in Mobile. 

The commandant had some duties much j^leasanter to read 
of, and it is to be hoped pleasanter to perform, than taking- 
possession of other people's property. An instance is found in 
the matter of contract for marriage between Monsieur Pierre 
Trouillet and Demoiselle Isabelle Narbonne, May 18, 1786. 

It recites the groom's father and mother as Charles Trouillet 
and Marguerite Rochon, the bride's as Antoine Narbonne and 
Marie Joseph Krebs. Friends j)articipated in the arrange- 
ment, such as Jean Chastang and Narcisse Brontin, Valentine 
Dubroca and Louis Dubroca, besides the bride's parents, she 
being a minor. The instrument provides for a Catholic mar- 
riage, to occur as soon as either requests it ; that neither is liable 
for the ante-nuptial debts of the other, but they shall hold in 
common all property, movable and immovable, according to 
the custom of Spain, all other customs being renounced. The 
estate of the bride consisted of a ten -year-old negress named 
Julie, worth three hundred hard dollars (2yiastres gourdes, mon- 
noye sonnante) ; while Trouillet brought into the community 
8,000 piastres in money, slaves, etc., of which he gave as dower 
750 piastres, hard money. In case of death of either without 
children, the survivor should receive the whole property. All 
execute before Commandant Favrot. 

A contract signed before the notary in 1786 has survived, 
whereby Francois David is to work as carpenter for John Joyce 
at twenty-five piastres a month for three months, and Joyce 
is also to provide food and washing. The same year we have 
an apprenticeship of Josuee Faicher to Sieur Thomas Beauvais, 
a tailor, for six years, approved ("V° B° ") by the command- 
ant, as everything must be. Beauvais promises to teach Josuee 
that trade, support him, care for him in sickness, and treat him 



JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 287 

as he did himself; while Josuee swears to conduct himself like 
a good boy and work out his term. In 1787 is an agreement 
by which Charles Lucas is advanced by Turnbull & Joyce, 
merchants, 800 iJiastres gourdes of merchandise, on a credit of 
ninety days, to use in his business of trade in the "Nation 
Chis." 

Upon the death of any citizen, the commandant and notary 
sealed up his effects for proper administration. But this pro- 
cedure has rather a gruesome aspect when we find them on May 
7, 1787, hurrying to Jacob Schneider's house for that purpose 
immediately ujDon his death that day at five P. M. They made 
the inventory while the body was lying before them on a bench. 
There was nothing to seal up, but they opened his trunk and 
found clothing, razors, and accounts of no value. There were 
also planes, measures, hatchets, and in fact apparently a fair set 
of carpenter's tools, besides a cock, two hens, and seven chick- 
ens. The poultry three days later were appraised at two 
piastres, and everything else at sixteen, but Fontanilla paid 
twenty -three for the whole. This was exactly balanced by the 
debts and expenses, which included five piastres for a coffin, 
one to the sacristan for the grave, and four each to judge and 
notary for sessions (^vacations) and writings. 

One of the most interesting documents which has survived is 
that giving the proceedings, 1786-87, on the death of Don Juan 
Pedro Eon, cure and abbe, as Favrot calls him, of the district of 
Mobile. On hearing the news the commandant, notary, and 
witnesses went to the house, swore the attendants to there hav- 
ing been nothing disturbed, and then viewed the body on the 
bed in another room. His trunks and cabinets were sealed 
with paper strips, to which the commandant affixed his own seal 
in lack of a royal one, and all was put in charge of Fontanilla. 
After the funeral the seals were broken, the property inven- 
toried and appraised, and in due course sold to pay debts, as in 
other cases, although he left sufficient money and paper. The 
debts were few, one being to his washerwoman. The product 
of the auction was 153 piastres two escalins. The debts were 
74 piastres two escalins, including two piastres to the auction- 
eer, one to the drummer, and the fees of judge and notary. 
His coffin cost four piastres and was furnished by Mongoulas, 
who figures on other such occasions. His net estate was 549 



288 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

piastres 2^ escalins, which was sent to Governor Miro to re- 
main in the hands of the attorney of unclaimed goods (proctt- 
reur des hiens vacants) until heirs appeared. With the money 
were also sent a roll of manuscrij)t sermons and eighty-one 
books. These last included seventeen volumes of "Confer- 
ences Ecclesiastiques," five breviaries, five volumes of "Bour- 
daloue's Sermons," sixteen of "Theologie Morale," two of 
"Code Ecclesiastique," two of "Prelections Logiques," and 
thirty -four books of prayers. This priest was a man of learn- 
ing, and other effects show him to have been of some refine- 
ment also. He had wine, oil, besides empty bottles and 
"damejeannes," six knives, three spoons, four forks, six plates 
of Kouen ware, four glass goblets, handkerchiefs, besides a 
good deal in the way of clothing and bedding. He left tobacco 
articles also. He must have been a man of some prominence, 
for there were a good many letters from bishojis, particularly 
from Antoine Joseph des Laurents, bishop of St. Malo. From 
orders among his assets, we learn that he was appointed by the 
intendant and received a salary of thirty piastres a month, 
besides fifty piastres a year for lights, bread and wine for the 
church. 

The articles belonging to this "chapelle" were carefully 
separated, but everything else was auctioned off on December 
30 and subsequent days. The officials worked as usual until 
noon and from two to five o'clock p. M., but no longer, so that 
the proceedings before and at the sale consumed several days. 
The priest's clothes and things were bought by a number of 
different parishioners. Saussaye bought some of his shirts, 
Cassiano several suits; his socks went to Langevin, shoes to 
Arnot (at a piastre and a half), razors to Dubroca ; and Saus- 
saye paid three j^iastres for his "parasol." One could hardly 
walk the streets for some time without seeing some souvenir of 
the late pastor. 

Settlement of estates was not necessarily any more prompt 
under the Spanish than under the American dispensation. 
Upon the death of Sieur Claude Dupont, one Augustin Moreau, 
called Belleisle, resident on Pascagoula River, became admin- 
istrator. There were several distributees, to wit, Marie Anne 
Dupont, wife of Mathias Leflaux; Louison Dupont, wife of 
Joseph Krebs; Jean Baptiste and Catherine Dupont; and 



JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 289 

Marie Jeanne Guillory, widow of Duj)ont, but then wife of 
Moreau. This married widow petitioned and obtained from 
Grimarest an arbitration in 1783, Chastang, Sr., Duret, and 
Dubroca being selected. In some way they overlooked the 
debts, and Moreau next year had the governor set aside their 
award. The same arbitrators were continued, however, and, 
deducting debts, they ascertained the balance to be 2,347 jaias- 
tres. Of this, half went to the widow, the rest to the four 
heirs, all of whom in 1786 sign in satisfaction, renouncing all 
right of appeal. In connection with this settlement we find 
Favrot's grant (Jiomologatioii) of Jean Baptiste's request for 
emancipation, and that Raphael Krebs be made his guardian 
{subroge tuteur}, Jean Baptiste being only twenty-one years 
old. 

Favrot also exercised the right to emancipate slaves on the 
owner's being paid the price fixed by arbitration. Pierre 
Trouillet, for some reason (apparently the very good one of 
paternity), wished Alexis, a young mulatto belonging to the 
widow Rochon, to be freed, and demanded arbitrators. He 
appointed one, she another, and the commandant a third. These 
differed, and Favrot decided between them on 450 piastres. 
Trouillet paid this to the widow, and the commandant issued 
the emancipation papers at the fort. 

We find Lanzos in November, 1793, taking depositions to 
return to Pensacola in the matter of a runaway slave, copies 
being retained at Mobile. The statements were so taken under 
oath on the petition of Josef Balenzategui, from whose schooner 
at Mobile a negress valued at 'f350 had escaped as he was 
about to take her to Pensacola to deliver Panton for "Tomas 
Cornis," her owner. The facts brought out by examination of 
Forbes and Fontanilla, all by question and answer, were that 
in the preceding spring a ti-ader named Francis, of Little River, 
{Peqiiena Rivera) had for -f 100 {pesos) ransomed the woman 
from the savages, who were about to kill her, as they had her 
runaway companion (inarron) for the murder of an Indian. 
Francis seems to have turned the woman and the matter of her 
salvage over to Forbes and he to the commandant, who asked 
Fontanilla to take charge of her; but, as Fontanilla had no 
accommodation, she was finally lodged in a calaboose (calavoso) 
of the fort until a boat sailed. It happened to be Balenza- 



290 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

tegui's, and he received her from a corporal, giving a receipt, 
at first in pencil, but afterwards in ink and due form. That 
night Balenzategui and the priest, McKenna, took supper at 
Forbes' house, and the negress came in the room and asked 
Forbes to buy her. Apparently she did not want to go back 
to her master. But Forbes declined and told her to leave. 
She did so, — to good effect, for when Balenzategui after supper 
went down to the kitchen for her, she had disappeared. 



CHAPTEK XXXV. 

THE DEMARCATION LINE AND THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 

(Commandants, — 1795, Olivier ; 1798, Lanzos ; 1800, Perez ; 1801, 
Osorno ; 1805, St. Maxent ; 1808, Salazar ; 1809, Perez.) 

It would serve no good purpose to divide our subject into 
periods corresponding with the rule of the later commandants. 
They succeeded each other with too great frequency to leave 
much individual impress on events, and, except Perez and 
Osorno, none of them are much remembered. 

The time from 1795, when Olivier succeeded Lanzos, to 1809, 
does not present many notable features. Land grants were 
less numerous, and, when the country had hardened into Span- 
ish formality, there was little change, except that the Indian 
trade improved considerably. 

We have seen how Panton divided with Mather the com- 
merce of West Florida, and now, as his firm comes to Mobile, 
Mather and Strother disappear, and John Joyce, their suc- 
cessor, turns contractor. As merchants of Mobile, Panton, 
Leslie & Co. petitioned for a vacant lot on Royal Street running 
back to the river, bounded north by land of Miguel Eslava, 
south by vacant land. As granted September 16, 1795, the 
lot had sixty feet front, and according to Olivier was eligibly 
situated for commercial purposes. It was the northeast corner 
of Royal and Government, extending eastwardly to the river. 

Panton, Leslie & Co. had not been long in possession be- 
fore they determined on a great improvement. Royal Street 
was the front street up to that time, but this was only one of a 
number of lots extending from the east side of Royal down 
towards the river. It seems that a shell bank ran along in the 
river the whole length of the Spanish city, near the shore, and 
created a shallow lagoon about a hundred feet wide on the land 
side, which in summer became stagnant and offensive. It also 
interfered with ready access to water of loading depth. The 



„^"' 



292 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

firm determined to fill up the marsh out to the shell reef, and 
therefore filed a petition in due form. It was warmly indorsed 
by Olivier, and on April 25, 1798, granted by Gayoso. 

Such filling was quite necessary. Osorno in 1803 made a 
grant to Gertrude Loysel on the same conditions. The lot 
she desired was marshy, containing fifty-six feet front by one 
hundred and thirteen deep, bounded south by the wharf, north 
by lands of John Forbes (probably meaning the land just men- 
tioned of Panton & Co.), east by the bay, and on the west by 
the small cabin which served as a dwelling for the sailors of 
this post. The reason given for the grant was, that filling up 
.the stagnant place would remove one of the principal causes of 
fever every summer. Osorno recites that Intendant-general 
Ramon Lopez de Angulo had previously granted like land to 
Don Benito Caro to fill for similar reasons, but that grant has 
not been preserved. In 1804 Espejo also received seventy by 
one hundred and forty feet south of the wharf for the double 
purpose of building a house for the manufacture of bread and 
biscuit, to carry out his contract to supply garrison and public, 
and to fill the lot and raise grain. He also promised to raise 
the levee leading to high land. A similar concession is made 
next to Espejo, extending his lot near Trenier, in the rear of 
St. Joaquin Street, on condition he fills it; and another to 
Mary Aygue, at the end of St. Francis Street (near the present 
Methodist church), bounded north and west by the woods, — 
both, although away from the river, liable to inundation from 
the great quantity of water which ran from the woods, and stag- 
nated and injured the public health.^ 

The firm of Panton, Leslie & Co., which began this reclama- 
tion, was destined, under that and the later name of John 
Forbes & Co., to attain to great importance at Mobile and 
Pensacola. It was composed at first of John Forbes, William 
Panton, and John Leslie. 
/ Panton was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and, moving to 
America, he acquired property in South Carolina and Georgia. 
The American war, however, made him a refugee, and by 

1 Mobile Translated Records, pp. 305, 306, 308. Ramon de Lopez y 
An^Uo became intendant in 1799 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 172. Many 
interesting facts have also been gathered from Espejo's papers in the posses- 
sion of his granddaughter, Mrs. Henry Barnewall, of Mobile. 



THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 293 

1785, If not before (Pickett says 1781), he was In business at 
Pensacola.i He made a specialty of the Indian trade. In which 
the firm was aided by the celebrated chief, Alexander McGilli- 
vray, who Is said to have been a silent partner. By 1789 
Panton, Leslie & Co. are said to have carried at their chief 
store a stock of $50,000, for they had extensive skin -houses 
and employed fifteen clerks. Their fleet at one time consisted 
of fifteen schooners, and they had branch stores at St. John's, 
St. Mark's, St. Augustine, Mobile, and a trading establish- 
ment at Chickasaw Bluff (near modern Memphis) on the Mis- 
sissippi River. John Forbes was once in their house at New 
Providence, but in 1793, when he was twenty-four years old, 
we find him with a home in Mobile, and testifying that he was 
a member of the firm. In this proceeding he is sjsoken of as 
an Englishman of Tensaw (^Ingles de Tinzd). In 1799 Elli- 
cott found him residing in Mobile. On the withdrawal of the 
Interests of Panton and Leslie, John Innerarlty and James 
Innerarity took their j)laces. All were related by blood or 
marriage. The change of name was in 1804, on the death of 
Panton, who lived at Pensacola.^ Forbes was the son of James 
Forbes and Sarah Gordon, of Scotland, and at least two sisters 
outlived him in the old country. In the latter part of his life 
John Forbes was to live at Matanzas, Cuba. He never mar- ^ 
ried, but left two daughters.^ ^ 

There had been constant friction, more especially on the 
Mississippi, between the western settlers and the Spanish offi- 
cials. The mouths of the western and southern rivers were all 
held by Spain, who would let no goods go up or down without 
heavy duties. 

The new American constitution substituted a strong govern- 
ment for the old rope of sand, while on the other hand the 
French Revolution and Napoleonic wars weakened Spain. 
These two facts changed the history of America. Instead of 
Spain's annexing portions of the United States, this country 
took advantage of Spain's weakness, and, carrying out the 
plans of John Jay, — who, as envoy in Revolutionary days, 

1 2 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 61, 97; Pintado in 2 White's New Recopila- 
cion, p. 361 ; EUicott's Journal, p. 211. 

2 Meek's Southwest, p. 93. 

3 Forbes' Will, 1 Mobile Will Book, p. 153. 



294 COLONIAL MOBILE. 



< 



had asked Spanish recognition only if navigation of the Missis- 
sippi was conceded, — forced the Pinckney treaty of 1795. This 
assented to the boundary of 31° named by Great Britain in 
1783, and, in opening the Mississippi, conceded also the right 
of deposit or warehousing of merchandise at the mouth of the 
river. 

The Spanish officials still hammered at the old plan of sepa- 
ration, now become treasonable because unnecessary. Wilkin- 
son, at Detroit, was the American commanding general and 
pronounced the scheme chimerical ; but there is every reason to 
believe that he did not refuse money still. 

The Spaniards put off delimiting the boundary of 31° as long 
as they could, but, when Gayoso was in 1798 actually be- 
sieged in his fort by indignant American settlers, he yielded. 
This boundary became the south line of the Mississippi terri- 
tory created that year. 
/ The running of the line is mentioned in 1798 as then in pro- 

gress. Where it would exactly strike no one knew, and for a 
year or two the Tombigbee settlers were in uncertainty. Law- 
rence McDonald, for example, was an Indian trader for 
Panton, Leslie & Co., and Lanzos certifies that McDonald 
desired to locate in Mobile because he did not wish "to live 
under the government of the United States of America." Such 
devotion was appreciated, and he obtained a lot on the north 
side of "Government " ten by twenty toises. But the lot next 
north was vacant, and there is nothing whereby to locate this 
our first refugee. 
\^ The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, kept from 1796 to 1800, 

was published at Philadelphia in 1803, and contains the 
observations of this American commissioner in running the new 
boundary. He seems to have begun work near the Mississippi 
River on April 11, 1798, and worked eastwardly towards 
Mobile. His movements are not always intelligible to a lay- 
man, but we learn that he found the observatory already erected 
when he arrived at the end of the guide line on the Mobile 
River. Setting up his instruments there March 18, 1799, he 
completed a course of observations by April 9. He also sent 
his assistant Gillespie with a Hadley's sextant up to Fort St. 
Stephens to take the latitude of that place and make a sketch 
of the river, which was duly done. 



THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 



295 



The observations made resulted in fixing the boundary stone 
on a rise between what are now Cold Creek and Chastano-'s 
stations, on the Mobile and Birmingham Railroad. This 
irregular piece of brown sandstone, about three feet high, is 
still there, visible from the railroad, and called Ellicott's Stone. 




ELLICOTT'S STONE. 



It is the basis of all surveying in this part of Alabama. On 
the north side is, — "U. S. Lat. 31° 1799; " and on the south 
side, "Dominios de S. M. Carlos IV. Lat. 31° 1799." 

The Journal reads : ^ " One serious difficulty presented itself, 
that was the continuation of the line through the swamp, 
which is at all times almost impenetrable; but at that, season 
of the year absolutely so : being wholly inundated : — But 
fortunately we found in the neighborhood of our camp a 
1 Ellicott's Journal, p. 198. 



296 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

small hill, the summit of which was just elevated above the 
tops of the trees in the swamp. From the top of this hill, we 
could plainly discover the pine trees on the high land, on the 
east side. Upon ascertaining this fact, we sent a party through 
to the other side, (along the water courses, by which the swamp 
is intersected in various directions), with orders to make a large 
fire in the night with light- wood ; the same was likewise to be 
done on the hill before mentioned, to obtain nearly the direc- 
tion from one place to the other. — The. atmosphere was too 
much filled with smoke to discern a flag or other signal, the 
woods being on fire on both sides of the swamp. — It happened 
unfortunately that the day before our fires were to be lighted, 
the fires in the woods had extended over almost the whole of the 
highlands, on both sides of the swamp; by which so many 
dead trees were set on fire, that there was no possibility of dis- 
criminating between them, and our fires. — It was then agreed 
that the parties should light up, and extinguish their fires a 
certain number of times ; making stated intervals. — This suc- 
ceeded so well, that we became certain of not taking a wrong 
fire in determining the angles. — Conti-ary to our expectations, 
a heavy rain fell on the same night, a short time after we had 
finished the experiment, and extinguished all the fires in the 
woods. — The storm cleared off with a strong north-west wind, 
which carried off all the smoke, and enabled us to determine 
the angles in the day, by erecting signals, which was accom- 
plished on the second day of April." 

Ellicott notes that Mobile Bay and River make up the most 
important waterway between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, 
because of the inlet they offer for an enemy like the Spaniards 
to penetrate into the interior. 

Rimning this line lasted some time and cost the Spaniards 
over $150,000. It narrowed West Florida to a width of only 
forty to ninety miles, with a length of 450 miles. According 
to Pintado, himself at this time deputy surveyor of the pro- 
vince, "before the establishment of these limits West Florida 
was so bare of inhabitants to the south of them that, excepting 
the part of the Mississippi which ajjpertains to it, and the towns 
of Mobile and Pensacola, the rest was a complete desert, and, 
exclusive of the garrison of the two last places, and the posts 
of St. Mark's of Appalachy and Baton Rouge, there were only 



THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 297 

counted eight hundred men, in all the extension of the province, 
capable of bearing arms, and these of all classes and nations, 
amongst them very few Spaniards ; indeed, the number of these 
was not sixty. The emigration of the evacuated posts procured 
for West Florida a great number of colonists, which daily 
increased, to whom lands were granted by the government of 
Louisiana ; but the greater part of these were Anglo-Americans, 
some Irish and Scotch, a few Germans, and about a dozen 
of Spaniards, the most of them unmarried." ^ 

A change of the method of granting lands was made at the 
time of this delimitation, and doubtless had some connection 
with the advance of the American frontier. From 1770 the 
granting power had vested in the governor of the province; but 
a royal order given October 22, 1798, in San Lorenzo, changed 
this and conferred the authority exclusively on the intendant, 
by whom it was exercised ever afterwards. ^ Intendant Juan 
Ventura Morales thereupon promulgated a set of regulations 
on the subject. 

December 23, 1800, we first find Joaquin de Osorno, captain 
of the regiment of Louisiana infantry, acting in the capacity 
of "Political and Military Commandant," and yet Cayetano 
Perez sometimes takes acknowledgments of deeds. This was 
the case August 31, 1801, when Osorno himself bought from 
Francis Fontanilla the well-known lot, 114 feet front by 126 
deep, "bounded on the north by the King's Bakehouse, on the 
east by a lot belonging to the estate of John Joyce, deceased, 
on the south fronting on the square of the Fort, and on the west 
by St. Emanuel Street," with building materials. The price 
was 1200 cash. 

Osorno happens to be (in 1801) the first person to whom 
there was a bill of sale of slaves which is preserved in our 
Translated Records, and he as commandant in 1803 has the 
honor of making the first grant of lands on record for the 
express purpose of cultivating cotton, plantations for which, 
he says, would contribute greatly to encourage industry in this 
jurisdiction. It is a concession to Miguel Desiderio Ardaz of 
twenty arpens front one league from the town, bounded north 

1 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 398 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 221. 
- 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 339. The regulations are given in an 
appendix to 3 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, p. 632. 



298 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

by Semandaville, — doubtless LansemandevIUe,^ on the Bay 
Shell Road. It is a coincidence that, half a mile lower down 
the road from that spot, about 1836, S. H. Garrow made the 
fii'st oil obtained from expressing cotton -seed. 

By official letter of Juan Ventura Morales dated December 
1, 1802, "the sub -delegation at this place" (Mobile) was in- 
structed not to transmit to his tribunal petitions for grants of 
land, as the same was closed in consequence of the death of the 
assessor-general.2 But this did not prevent the commandant 
from granting provisional titles. The provident Eslava, in 
consideration of his great public services, received several in 
this way, one tract being that between Favre and De Lusser, 
afterwards to be known in front as the Collell Tract. One of 
the largest grants was that by Osorno in 1803 of what is called 
the Eslava Mill Tract; and the Dubroca, Esj)ejo, and other 
concessions by Osorno date from abovit the same time, and were 
due to fear of cession to the United States.^ 

There is no peaceful event in United States history of greater 
importance than the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon, 
April 30, 1803, after he had secured its retrocession from 
Spain. The United States were to claim vigorously that they 
bought to the Perdido, and the Federal courts were to decide 
that all Spanish grants after this retrocession of October 1, 
1800, at St. Ildefonso, were nidi and void. It was morally cer- 
tain that sooner or later Mobile, arid Florida, too, must go to 
round off the frontier of the great republic, and Eslava was 
not the only one who acquired concessions to keep from want 
when change of flag would take away his employment. But 
Spain ever maintained that Mobile had been in 1763 severed 
from Louisiana as much as the Ohio country had been, and then 
by the British made a part of West Florida ; that it had been 
conquered by Galvez and administered by his successors as part 
of her West Florida, and was never ceded with Louisiana to 
France. Talleyrand admitted Spain did not intend to cede it, 
but his fine hand purposely left it uncertain whether France 
had claimed it as retroceded. It was considered of little value, 
— the seat, according to Duvallon, only of fishermen. In point 

^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 300. 
2 /5j-j.^ pp, 294, 295. 
8 See Appendix D. 



THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 299 

of fact, Spain calmly held on to Mobile and Baton Rouge. 
But it did unsettle matters, and this we see reflected in land 
grants and in the emigration of inhabitants. An unofficial 
census for 1803 puts the population at 810 only. The king 
seems to have kept but a launch there, manned by two sail- 
ors,^ who received $10 a month and rations. 

The principal effect of the cession was, that New Orleans 
ceased to have any connection with Mobile, and that Mobilians 
had as in British times to look to Pensacola as their capital, 
although it was not haff as large as Mobile. There Governor 
Folch resided, and from there now issued all regulations about 
land as well as political matters. 

Folch and Intendant Morales were bitter enemies, and, when 
Morales was in effect ejected from New Orleans by Claiborne 
in 1806, the governor stationed troops at Mobile Point to pre- 
vent his getting any nearer Pensacola.^ The intendant, he 
said, could jDut his records in Fort Charlotte. However, 
Morales did get to the capital, and in August, 1807, we find him 
describing himself as "Intendant and Sviperintendent-General, 
Sub-delegate of West Florida, Judge of Public Lands." Offi- 
cially the office of the intendancy was at Pensacola from Feb- 
ruary, 1806.^ 

Delays were not infrequent in grants before and after the 
cession. Byrnes was in occupancy several years before getting 
title, and John Trouillet fared worse. In 1787 he had peti- 
tioned for a tract of land at Bayou Minet forty (twenty ?) by 
forty arpens, and promptly enough was granted it. The sur- 
vey, however, did not take place, and after a while Trouillet 
died. In 1806 his widow revived the claim, and after several 
decrees the commandant at Mobile was directed to have a sur- 
vey made and return the result. This was not at first done, 
but John Forbes, becoming her attorney, the next year pushed 
the matter through. Collins surveyed the land April 13. Pin- 
tado recorded Collins' survey and returned a plat. Morales 
on August 14, 1807, issued a title to the widow Feliciana from 
Pensacola for 800 arpens, sealed with his armorial bearings and 

1 Duvallon's Vue de la Col. Esp. du Mississippi, p. 65, Paris, 1803 ; 2 Mar- 
tin's Louisiana, pp. 205, 254 ; 9 Howard Rep. (U. S.), p. 127. 

2 4 Gayarrd's Louisiana, pp. 69, 70. 

8 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 368 ; Mobile Translated Records, p. 344. 



300 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

countersigned by Francis Gutierrez de Arroyo, secretary ad 
interim of tlie intendancy, in whose office, as well as in that of 
John Francis Arnaud de Courville, the office of the exchequer 
of the principal minister of finance of West Florida, it is said 
the grant was duly registered, in folios 68-70 and 94-95 respec- 
tively of the books kept for that purpose.^ 

It was seldom such a patent was issued, for it was expensive 
and the government respected the permits as titles.^ The Mobile 
Translated Records after 1798 are made up as a rule, not of 
true grants, but of petitions and permits to settle on condition of 
cultivation, with indorsed orders of survey. The theory of the 
American confirmations later was, not that such title was per- 
fect, but that, where the conditions had been carried out, and 
so proved before Federal commissioners, the title ought to be 
confirmed, because the Spanish government should and would 
on application have furnished such a complete title. 

Don Francisco Gutierrez de Arroyo has preserved for us the 
proceedings of a junta which seems to control the royal finance 
and land business, too. This, he says, was "held on the 22d 
of November, 1806, by the order of Don Juan Ventura 
Morales, provisory honorary intendant of province in this pro- 
vince, with the sub-delegation of this superintendency-general 
of royal finances annexed, at which were present Doctor Don 
Jose Francisco de Heredia, assessor of the said intendancy; 
Don Juan Francisco Arnaud de Courville, accounting officer 
and treasurer of these royal treasuries, with the rank of a royal 
officer, and acting as fiscal of royal finances; Don Manuel 
Gonzales Armirez, formerly provisory treasurer of the royal 
treasury of New Orleans, and commissioned to conclude the 
unfinished business of the retroceded province of Louisiana; 
and I, the aforesaid provisory secretary of this intendancy of 
the Junta, with a vote in it; the said intendant presiding." 

The action of this august tribunal related to the aggressive 
Americans. Louisiana was lost, and if they became numerous 
in West Florida they would certainly overpower the Spaniards 
even there. A royal order of February 20, 1805, had been 
issued against their acquiring lands, and the junta was to devise 
details for carrying that out. This they did by declaring that 

1 Translated Records, pp. 344-346. 

2 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 691. 



THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 301 

no gratuitous concession could be made to one of Anglo-Ameri- 
can origin, but that sales at the usual price of $2.00 an acre 
(copied from the American price in Louisiana) could be made 
to all, regardless of origin, who then were Spanish subjects. 
This determination included Mobile as well as Baton Kouge and 
Pensacola.^ 

It was apparently this junta, certainly "the department of 
finances," which earlier in the year had notified Captain Don 
Vincente Sebastian Pintado that he had been raised to the 
office of surveyor-general of West Florida on the withdrawal 
of Captain Don Carlos Trudeau, to whom he had been deputy 
since May 1, 1796. The appointment was December 13, 1805, 
but the royal approval dated from May 9 of next year. His 
work fixed many titles in West Florida, and both in deeds and 
elsewhere he sometimes gives us the basis of his surveys. "It 
is to be observed," he says, "the arpent of Paris, of which use 
was made in Louisiana and West Florida during the Sj)anish 
domination, is a square whose side is of ten perches of Paris, 
and of course contains 100 square perches; the lineal perch of 
Paris is of eighteen feet of the same city. The acres are those 
used by the English in the Floridas, and 512 of these are equal 
to 605 arpents of Paris." ^ As to fees, we find nine dollars 
paid on one occasion, but this hardly included the survey. 

No doubt the surveyor could identify the "Old Brick Yard 
abandoned, four arpens front, bounded east by a small ravine 
formerly used as a washing place, north by the road, and on the 
other sides by public lands; " but we cannot, unless it be Espe- 
jo's, in what was to be the Favre Tract. Similar puzzles abound 
in the records, and, like the statement of points of the compass, 
are the despair of an archaeologist.^ We shall have occasion to 
note several of these brickyards. We see them also up Mobile 
River, near Bay Minette, and several at Red Bluff, near our 
Montrose. Forbes & Company seem to have sued Feliciana 
respecting the legal right to an 150 arpen tract, on the oppo- 
site side of the Bay of Mobile, valuable because on it there 
was a brick and a tile yard, with buildings, and obtained in 
1810 a favorable judgment. The merits of the controversy are 

1 2 "White's New Recopilacion, pp. 401-403. 

2 Ibid., pp. 338, 347. 

8 Mobile Translated Records, p. 261. 



302 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

not disclosed, but her brother and executor, Eugene Chastang, 
whose son was a beneficiary under her will, on account of need 
of money for legacies and to save other more valuable property, 
finally sold the tract to John Forbes & Co. 

Sawmills were, if anything, even more needed than brick- 
kilns, and there are references which betray their existence at 
different points. There had been a French sawmill as far 
away as Pascagoula, and in 1802 there was one called Durand's, 
west of the Mandeville Tract. There are traces of a number 
of them about Mobile, and a creek twelve miles above the city 
was named Sawmill Creek. Folch's first appearance as gov- 
ernor-general is as encouraging Gerald and Thomas Byrne 
to erect their proposed sawmill. While the site is not stated, 
it was probably on Tensaw River, where the Byrne grant has 
long been known. 

Other local officials there were, although the surveyor and 
commandant overshadowed every one. The Indian interpreter 
was a necessary officer. For a long time it was Pierre Juzan, 
but he died, and from Perez' second term it was J. B. Trenier. 
Artola and Bongarzon are mentioned as custom-house guards. 
Thomas Price was to receive in 1798 and 1806 rather dispro- 
portionate recompense for his work as interpreter ; and we have 
already seen that Eslava, royal quartermaster for so long, 
became an extensive investor at public auctions of lands. 
Rafael Hidalgo was surgeon of the hospital during much of the 
Spanish regime, and is often in the records before his death 
in 1811. He lived with his wife, Elizabeth Chastang, daugh- 
ter of Joseph Chastang, in a house they built at the southwest 
corner of our St. Emanuel and Conti. It was purchased in 1797 
from Chastang, and was to be the subject of litigation in .Ameri- 
can times on account of a deed of Hidalgo to Registe Bernoudy ; 
but the claimants under Bernoudy were barred by time. 

The case is interesting as upholding the title of the widow 
under the Spanish law (2 Partidas, 1101) to inherit from the 
husband in default of blood kin, and as showing that she might 
supposably become a rich woman in this way. For Hidalgo's 
widow married several times. About 1813 she married 
Michael Perrault and lived there with him until 1818 or 1819, 
when he died, and she then married Victor Gannard. They, 
too, lived in the same place for some years, but she died else- 



THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 303 

where in 1824, herself without issue, and Gannard was her 
devisee.^ 

Antonio Espejo was also an active citizen. He was a son of 
Bartolome Espejo, of Eonda, in the diocese of Malaga. He 
lived in the house he built near the wharf, and only visited his 
ranches on Portage and Salto bayous. His death occurred in 
1805 of yellow fever, caught from an Havana vessel, possibly 
the first death in Spanish times from that dread disease. The 
Tankersleys and Ingersolls are his descendants. 

1 Baker v. Chastang, 18 Ala. pp. 418, etc. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

STREETS AND PEOPLE. 

As a traveler walked about Spanish Mobile, he would see 
little of American energy. At the mouth of great navigable 
streams, the country trade of the place was with Indians only, 
and by canoes ; at the head of a fine bay, foreign commerce was 
yet small. The King's Wharf, just south of Government 
Street, accommodated this traffic, and the house of Panton, 
Leslie & Co. controlled the bulk of it. Near there, the 
marshy land was filled up so as to make a quay out to the ledge 
of oyster-shells which lay about where Water Street now runs ; 
but, north of Dauphin and south of the Fort, lagoon and marsh 
claimed the river bank. The marshes came down from the 
Bayou Chateaugue district to near St. Anthony Street; and 
from about Eslava south also the land was similarly overflowed 
to the east of the ridge, at or near present St. Emanuel Street, 
even to the bay at modern Frascati. The little town did not 
extend as far west as Jackson except at one point, and its prin- 
cipal buildings were on Royal Street, north of the fort. Ellicott, 
in 1799, thought the situation handsome, some of the houses 
tolerably good, and, for so small a place, the trade considerable. 

South of the fort esplanade were Durette and Don Miguel 
Eslava's high house, near our Monroe, with his garden in rear, 
and his negro huts west of where St. Emanuel Street now runs.^ 
There was a row of houses east of him across the unnamed 
street, and on Conception, too, west of the fort, were a few 
places. Lefleau, for instance, had what is now the Sheffield 
place on St. Emanuel. Such was the small South District. 
.But the miles of land north and south of the little town were 
\untenanted marshes then, instead of cotton warehouses and lum- 
laer yards ; and the gently sloping plain to its west, now crowded 

1 Petition of A. Michel before U. S. Senate, January 9, 1840, and exhibits ; 
EUicott's Journal, p. 201. 



y«p*/r^'-- 



V^' 



S«y</^y?^'^'W^r^^ 



fi*«/-"^ 



^ 



^..^•' 



.A 



.• / 



v'^ 
-''% 














SPANISH AUTOGRAPHS 



STREETS AND PEOPLE. 305 

with humble homes or handsome residences, was then a vast 
pine forest interspersed with oaks and magnolias. 

About the streets walked stolid Spanish officials and the 
vivacious French inhabitants, together with negro slaves and 
picturesque Choctaws, while only after the Louisiana purchase 
of 1803 would be seen a wide-awake Yankee, come to make 
his fortune. 

Any visitor, Yankee or otherwise, would first examine frown- 
ing Fort Charlotte, then, as ever before, the principal point of 
interest. It was kept in good repair, especially after the Louisi- 
ana cession. Ellicott found it even in 1799 in a good state of 
defense. Near the single wharf was Montuse (Mottus) Tavern, 
hardly a modern Battle House, on land granted Antonio Espejo ; 
for his widow had married Sylvain Mottus, a French refugee. 
Mottus while a mere boy had gone to Paris in the Terror, but a 
servant spirited him away to America. He was shipwrecked in 
Florida, learned to be a cooper, and made his way to Mobile. 
It is more or less romantic to learn that he met his future wife 
while acting as appraiser of her deceased husband's effects. 

The approach Q)lazoleta) to the wharf adjoining the Mottus 
place was nearer the south than the north line of Government; 
and the wharf built by Joyce under contract in 1793 was 380 
feet long by twelve wide, with cedar posts and two-inch planks. 
This famous structure was blown down in 1811 and not rebuilt, 
except that in 1818 Tankersley was to construct a larger one on 
the same posts in front of the Espejo lot, at southwest corner 
of Water and Government streets. ^ West, beyond the eleva- 
tion of Royal Street, came places facing the esplanade of the 
brick fort. The palisade had long since disappeared, and the 
commandant lived northeast Government and St. Emanuel, 
almost under the Spanish flag floating from the fort. This 
residence, the old Farmer home, was private property. 

Our Government Street extended but little west, probably 
not beyond the Rochon place at the southeast corner of Concep- 
tion. It would seem to have received the name from the Gov- 
ernment House, which maps of this century show stood a little 
southeast of the Semmes Monument. It is not unlikely that 
this was connected with the royal storehouse (almacen) erected 
by Joyce under contract with the crown {Real Hacienda) in 
1 Pollard V. Greit, 8 Ala. p. 933. See also original Mobile archives. 



306 [COLONIAL MOBILE. 

1793. The wharf and the warehouse together cost 1280 
pesos. 

The earliest paper giving the name certainly meant for our 
Government Street was the application of Elizabeth Forneret 
in 1788 for grant of a lot ten by twenty-six toises situated on 
Government Street, opposite the house and lot of Antony Nar- 
bonne (" formerly belonging to Mr. Farmar "), which was 
granted her on March 15.^ The next mention was in 1803. On 
April 5 of that year, Miguel Desiderio Eslava — a son of Don 
Miguel — obtained from Perez a grant to 2| lots of vacant 
land on Government Street, fronting the fort, extending from 
St. Emanuel, on which they faced 82 feet, to Royal Street. 
This land was bounded north by houses of the widow of John 
Joyce and by Joaquin de Osorno. The St. Emanuel Street 
frontage, however, was behind the Farmer place, which was 
not included in the grant. ^ 

There were, of course, a number of other streets, all un- 
paved and narrow, as under the French. Leaving the fort and 
its esplanade behind, as one walked down Royal Street he would 
notice that the old Barracks Square had become private pro- 
perty in 1796, — that of Mary J. Krebs, the widow of Antony 
Narbonne. She sold it in that year, from Conti to the fort 
front, for $500. It shortly got into the hands of John Joyce, 
but from 1806 was to be claimed by Armand Duplantier. On 
the east side of Royal came first the old lot of John Forbes & 
Co., 140 feet front, adjoining the King's Wharf, and thus 
taking in part of Government Street. With the canal and 
privilege of building a private wharf, it was valuable for their 
foreign trade. Next (the site of the present theatre) came the 
warehouse of Benito Caro, who also filled out to deep water; 
and on the corner of Conti in later years Lewis Judson ; while, 
across Conti, Laurendine owned where the Winsor now stands. 
Thomas Powell was to hold the site of Adam Glass's store, and 
I Judson to come next. For the land east to the water was early 
^ take n up, an d_i t, to o, had its houses, brick, or frame filled in 
with brick and clay ^ allwhite or yellow washed, and roofed with 
tile or bark. 

The first cross street, our Conti, was then called Govern- 

* Mobile Translated Records, p. 89. 
2 Ihid., p. 310. 



STREETS AND PEOPLE. 307 

ment, although, from the building of the church on the old De 
Lusser lots in 1792, it gradually acquired the name of Church 
Street. It was truly a government street until the barracks 
became private property. With the removal, before 1793, of 
the Government House from near the Bakery, the name prob- 
ably migrated, too, to the more southern avenue. In point of 
fact, for a few years both were called Government Street. ^ 

Proceeding up Royal, we pass the same kind of houses, not 
all stores by any means. Vines, peach and fig trees abounded 
elsewhere than on the parsonage land. Many grants of what 
are now down-town lots were for residences, and made on the 
condition of building within a year ; for the Spaniards wished 
to build up the waste places and fill the town which so many 
English had abandoned. From the gabled church to Dauphin 
Street, and thus including Van Antwerp's, was later the pro- 
perty of James Innerarity, who seems to have acquired it from 
John Joyce. 1 Innerarity was the managing man for Forbes 
& Co., and Zadek's corner, too, was owned by that progressive 
firm. 

Dauphin Street had officially another name under the Span- 
iards. They renamed all the streets but Royal, and mainly 
for saints. Thus Dauphin was St. John, and even sometimes 
Conception, as in 1782,^ although it was probably at first Gal- 
vez Street; and there is some reason to think that Conti was 
once St. Peter. 

Spira and Pincus' corner was apparently the residence of Dr. 
John Chastang, and surrounded by pickets. There is some 
doubt how far east the pickets extended, and there was to be 
controversy over how much the Chastang right covered. Next 
came property confirmed to Pierre Lucien, but which seems to 
be the j)roperty Colomb deeded Fontanilla in 1786. We may 
remember that a billiard table went with it, and it would ap- 
pear that this is still one of the appurtenances, for it is prob- 
ably the site of the Battle Hoiise billiard saloon. The Battle 
House land was the winter home of Simon Andre, with his 
daughter Lucy next door. In summer he, his wife Jeanne, and 
their numerous family stayed up the river. Across on the west 
side of Royal we find, at Dauphin, Cornelius McCurtin, whose 

^ 3 American State Papers, p. 398. 
2 Chastang v. Dill, 19 Ala. p. 423. 



308 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

widow and devisee, Euphrosyna Bosage, was to marry McVoy. 
Ill her descendants still rests the title to the places next north 
of Burke's corner. Then came Dubroca, who sold this 100- 
foot lot in 1808 to Surtill for $1000. The Custom House 
marks the site of the stores of Forbes & Co., whose property 
also included St. Francis Street, and even beyond to the 
north, for in Spanish times this was no thoroughfare. The 
southernmost 90 feet was bought October 12, 1801, by Panton, 
Leslie & Co., of the widow of Augustin Roehon. It extended 
back 213 feet to St. Charles Street. William Simpson, on 
behalf of the firm, paid the $800 in drafts on the royal trea- 
sury. From here the main business of Panton and Forbes was 
done. 

St. Francis Street east of Royal, like Dauphin and even 
Conti, was represented only by a lane to the river. In 1811 
the free mulattress Mary Jeanne was living with her children 
in a little house at what is now the northeast corner of St. 
Francis and Royal. This was next south of another place of 
Simon Andre, which crossed our St. Michael. John Forbes & 
Co. desired the Mary Jeanne place, as it extended 26 toises east- 
wardly, and was bounded south by the lane going to the river. 
So they exchanged with her, giving her a place twelve toises 
front, somewhere on the south side of Church Street, in the rear 
of the town. There they obligated themselves to build her a 
house 26 by 18 French feet, "like the house of Peter Lorandine, 
with a double chimney of bricks," and they paid her $40 cash 
besides.^ Thus these merchants got an outlet to the river from 
their main house. North of Forbes, on the west side of Royal, 
the residents are not so easy to make out, except that the site 
of the Southern Express Co. was the residence of Mr. Orbanne 
(Demouy) by 1808. 

St. Michael is a Spanish name, but one of the curiosities of 
Mobile titles is that it is not in the surviving records applied 
to that street. It did not extend east of Royal, and west to our 
St. Joseph it was certainly called St. Jago at first, and later 
St. Francis; while west of St. Joseph it was in 1811 known as 
Orbanne Street, from the resident at the corner of Royal. 
Hugo Krebs came next north of Andre (or Andry) on Royal 
(with title confirmed in 1842 to his heirs) ; ^ and beyond him 
1 Translated Records, p. 405. - 6 Statutes at Large, p. 872. 



STREETS AND PEOPLE. 309 

was George Tucker, the English carpenter of Panton, Leslie & 
Co. In 1804 Innerarity was granted what is now the southeast 
corner of Royal and St. Louis, bounded north by that unopened 
street. West of St. Joseph this was in 1811 called Monlouis 
Street, probably from confusion with the name of the resident on 
it, but St. Louis also occurs as early as 1803. The site of Prin- 
cess Theatre was once owned by Simon Andry, who obtained it 
by a famous exchange with the interpreter Favre. Next south 
were the Alexandres, who bought from the widow of Narbonne. 
It would seem that St. Louis, although unopened east of Royal, 
was dedicated and vested in the public before 1800. ^ 

North of St. Louis there were in early times few lots on Royal, 
— none on the east side, and on the west mainly Raouis (Ruiz?), 
where the Electric Lighting Company has its plant. About our 
St. Anthony, Samuel Minis ^ had quite a tract from 1796, and 
in 1804 he sold to Bready, his brother-in-law, who built a fine 
house ; and where State Street now runs it was that McKenna 
once moved from the parsonage in order to have more room for 
his stock and garden. Later come as owners there Innerarity 
(who bought from Bready), Forbes and Kennedy, even into 
the marsh lands. The name St. Anthony is in the records 
first in 1800 ; and at right angles to this street, on an old plan, 
is another "Government Street," whose history has been lost. 
There are unaccountable difficulties and conflicts of title in this 
neighborhood, especially as to the Sam Minis property. ^ 

Parallel with Royal runs the street we call St. Emanuel south 
of Dauphin, and St. Joseph north of it. As St. Charles it had 
been always a favorite residence avenue, although in Spanish 
times, when it was thus renamed, the residents were a singular 
medley of whites and free blacks. It is first found as St. Joseph 
in 1808. The break in its course at Dauphin is inexplicable. 
The English and French maps run it straight north from the 
fort, while now, and, from Spanish records, evidently in Spanish 
times, the parallelism ceases at Dauphin. St. Joseph begins its 
course there about seventy -five feet nearer Royal, and thence 
proceeds northwardly, getting ever a little farther west. When 
and why this was we do not know, unless we are to consider it 

^ Kennedy v. Jones, 11 Ala. p. 73. 

2 Innerarity v. Mims, 1 Ala. pp. 666, etc. 

2 Mims V, Higgins, 39 Ala. p. 12. 



310 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

due in some way to the fire at the capture of the city. Certain 
it is, the Spanish occupation made a greater change in lands and 
titles than the British or American. Besides new owners, the 
re-grants cease to regard tlie French lots, and the size often 
depends upon the whim of the governor. 

On St. Emanuel, in the square north of our Government, we 
find Durette, Chastang, and others; and, between Conti and 
Dauphin, Trouillet and Vilars; antl William Fisher has a large 
lot on the east side from Conti northwards. . The southwest cor- 
ner of Dauphin and St. Emanuel, facing ninety feet on the 
latter and one hundred and fifty feet on Dauphin, was inclosed 
in pickets and owned by Anna Surtill, and as Mrs. Littleton 
Lecatte she held it until American times. Bienville Square 
was then (except at its southwest corner, where was the Spanish 
Hospital), and for a half century later, private property. The 
late Captain Stephen Charpentier was born on it, about oppo- 
site the head of St. Emanuel ; and Diego Alvarez lived on the 
Square after coming here from Spain in his vessel Marie Louise. 
The little, whitewashed Creole houses with trees and shrubbery 
did not differ from the rest of the town. The northwest corner 
of St. Charles and Dauphin, twelve by ten toises, was entered, 
as we would say, by Pedro Lavallet in 1793. Nicholas was 
next west on Dauphin ; Fontanilla was already next north on 
St. Joseph; Dufeux soon came next to him, and Catherine 
Durand adjoined her. Fontanilla afterwards obtained the cor- 
ner and passed it on to Joseph Ortiz. The Athelstan site 
opposite was owned by McCurtin, who held the more important 
Royal Street front, and a thirty-nine-foot lot, probably the 
present Masonic land, sold in 1810 for two hundred dollars. 
It was described as facing "St. Emanuel Street," and pur- 
chased by Eafael Hidalgo, practitioner of the Royal Hospital 
near by. 

The northeast corner of Bienville Square had belonged to 
an Englishman named Green, but it was granted again by the 
Spaniards and passed through William Fisher after a long pos- 
session to Forbes in 1811. Forbes, it will be remembered, 
owned from Royal to St. Charles, including the Peoi)le's Bank 
and old Bank of Mobile sites, and also owned the bulk of the 
block bounded by St. Michael on the north and St. Charles on 
the east. We should probably think of all this large property 



STREETS AND PEOPLE. 311 

as used together, — the Royal Street part, perhaps, for stores 
and skin-houses, the St. Michael Street part for stables and 
wagon yards. 

The site of Temperance Hall has a history as the residence 
of Julia Vilars, a mulattress of good character, who was granted 
in 1792 the northeast corner of St. Charles and St. Jago, with 
the dimensions of 60 by 120 feet, and later even this was 
enlarged. The same year Martha Triton, a free negress, was 
granted the lot next north; and next to her was Girard, whose 
land, extending to St. Louis Street, also came in 1803 to 
Forbes & Co. The Ileustis lot opposite seems to have been 
from 1800 the home of Thomas Price ; and Thomas Powell, an 
employee of Forbes, recommended by Lanzos as a man of good 
character, had entered the lot next north, now in St. Louis 
Street. Don Miguel Eslava was to get the lot south of Price 
and sell it in 1809 to P. H. Ilobart as in "Square 7," — the 
first number given for a city block. South of the Ilobart 
place was Andrew Bloque, and, on the corner of St. Michael, 
Pierre Lucien, who sold to Isabelle Baurrien. 

In 1810 John Murrell sold Ilobart for $75 the corner of St. 
Joseph and St. Louis, 12 by 20 toises, which he had bought m 
1806 of Thomas Powell. ^ But it would seem St. Joseph in 1810 
went no farther ; for the west boundary of the G alleges pro- 
perty on Royal Street, and lot inclosed in rear, was "a trail 
leading to the plantation belonging to the house of Forbes & 
Co." 2 The buildings made the land of value, and two interests 
sold for 15500. It was in this transaction that Petronille, 
whose husband, Morgan Byrne, was absent in a foreign coun- 
try without knowing when he would return, availed herself of 
her legal right to convey without him. On another occasion we 
see the converse of the rule, — the consent of the husband being 
apparently necessary for the wife to purchase land.'^ 

The last important street parallel with the river was Concep- 
tion, which bore for a while that name and St. Joachim in- 
differently. Possibly the earliest mention of Conception is in 
1792,* a grant on what seems to be northwest Conception and 
Conti, called. Government. The widow Trouillet obtained the 
southeast corner from the authorities, and in 1796 sold for <|20 

1 Translated Records, p. 386. ^ 7^;^.^ pp. 390, 403. 

8 Ibid., p. 392. * Ibid., pp. 115, 120, 133. 



312 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

to Honore Colins, a free mulatto, but without referring to 
its history as the Indian House. South towards our Govern- 
ment were Brontin (afterwards Nicholas) and Dolive on the 
east, and Girard, Trouillet, and others on the west side. 

In 1793 William Mitchell obtains the northeast corner of 
Conti, extending half way to Dauphin, owned until lately by 
his heirs; and the lot of Ortiz, bought from Espejo in 1802, 
filled out the other half. Espejo was paid $1225, for the sale 
included a house, two kitchens, two brick ovens, and other 
outhouses.^ This is the site of Gayfer's store, but also included 
the Goodman property on the east, sold by Ortiz to Savana 
eight years later as fronting the Royal Hospital. 

Almost as large a lot vis-a-vis the Hospital was the property 
of Irogoyen, keeper of that institution, and he sold in 1809 
to Constanze Higon. Ward's corner was later owned by Tre- 
nier ; and from there up to St. Francis we find Rosalie and 
Angelica, free negresses, and Joseph Merero, often named with 
confusion as to their relative locations. Across the street, next 
to the Hospital, long lived Bartoleme Laurent; and Auguste 
Colin, a free mulatto, adjoined him, having the corner on St. 
Francis, where he seems to have built a home. 

Across St. Francis Street, William Fisher in 1796 obtained 
a grant of a "vacant" lot 120 feet on Conception by 60 feet 
front, the site of the Bienville Pharmacy; but, except Clara 
Favre, who was opposite the negro Philij) at the northeast cor- 
ner of St. Michael, we have no other owners on the east side of 
Conception. On the west side, only late names are noticed, 
such as Surtill at the corner of St. Francis, and none at all 
north of St. Michael. 

Our Joachim was even in American times to be " New " Street, 
and so it is not surprising to find on it only Benjamin Dubroca, 
taking up almost the whole southwest quarter of the block 
bounded south by St. Michael; and Surtill, occupying 120 feet 
square in the next block, acquired for $120 from May Aygue. 
It was of course bounded noi'th and west by the woods. It 
is doubtful if St. Francis extended west of Conception, as even 
in 1809 it seems to be spoken of as a street without "passage ; " ^ 
and from about our Government Street a path led southwards 
from Joachim past a pond to Mandeville, on the Bay. 

1 Translated Records, p. 287. 2 jj^id^^ p. 367. 



STREETS AND PEOPLE. 313 

The north and south streets, as we have noticed, seem to 
have been the principal ones, and on them all lots face as far 
west as Conception. Even on Conti the only exceptions are 
the Fisher lands at the corner of St. Emanuel, and the east 
side of Conception from Conti to Dauphin, whose lots face on 
Conti and Dauphin respectively. 

Dauphin ran up to our Jackson Street, but beyond this there 
was only the cemetery, and Dauphin was but a path or country 
road running northwest to reach the Portage of Bayou Cha- 
teaugue. 

But Dauphin was then, as now, the principal street. The 
Surtills owned on it from the southwest corner of Joachim 
almost to Jackson, and opposite were Trenier, Robeshow, and 
Nicholas. Leon Nicholas fenced in the corner of Jackson from 
his grant in 1810, and Sylvain Nicholas claimed farther east 
from the next year.^ Sangrouber's was Robeshow's, and the 
Girard House was Pierre Laurendine's, while all the block op- 
posite except Harris' store was the property of Trenier. Tre- 
nier was a large owner at the American occupation, but does 
not occur in the early records. 

The more eastern sites on Dauj)hin have been named in con- 
nection, with the north and south streets. It must be remem- 
bered, too, that not far east of Royal was the river bank, owned 
by Forbes on the south, and Henry Baudain from his 1798 
grant on the north side of Dauphin ; so that about McGill's, 
and even Hammel's, fish were more plentiful than bargains. 

Forbes & Co., on November 5, 1811, sold out their many 
places to William Simpson of New Orleans for |35,000 by the 
longest document in the Translated Records, as if the principal 
business of Mobile were going into liquidation. In point of 
fact, however, it was Innerarity and not Simpson who was to 
handle the realty of that great house, the origin of so many 
titles. 

No Spanish map of the place has survived, and to that in 
part, no doubt, is due the varying street names. The regula- 
tions of 1798 provided for sale of town lots at Mobile as well 
as elsewhere, and the occasional mention of estimations or valu- 
ations seems to point to this. But from 1801-3 there is lit- 
tle or no evidence of such sales, although there were petitions 
^ 3 American State Papers, p. 398. 



314 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

from Mobile and orders of survey and valuation.^ As late as 
1806 we read that the plan of that city had not yet been deter- 
mined upon. 2 

Under the French, the fee to the soil of the streets was vested 
in the public. This was Eoman law, and the rule does not 
appear to have been modified by the Spaniards when they 
assumed dominion over Mobile. English law is otherwise, 
but the treaties which have governed the clianges of flag have 
expressly or impliedly preserved all property rights and the use 
of the streets.^ 

1 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 372. 

2 Ihid., p. 430. 

^ Kennedy v. Jones, 11 Ala. pp. 83-85. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

IN THE COUNTKY. 

The Creoles loved the water, and any map giving Spanish 
concessions will show those oblong white spaces, uncut by the 
land-office surveys, on the bay and rivers, but with few of them 
away from the water. This is as true at St. Stephens and 
Pascagoula as near Mobile. Even Espejo's 1803 ranche at the 
Cantonment nine miles west of Mobile, near the Great Spring, 
was on the Bayou del Salto (Cascade). 

It would take a volume to discuss the Spanish grants which 
were confirmed on Mobile River. First above the city there 
was the St. Louis tract, this side of Chickasabogue ; then 
Dubroca's large claim (afterwards sold to Samuel Acre), be- 
sides Duplantier, Hobart, and others on Bayou Sara. Hobart 
built ancl operated the mill afterwards owned by Cleveland, 
and lived there, while Diego Alvarez kept a ferry across 
Chickasabogue near his extensive grant. Constancia Rochon, 
widow of John Joyce, in 1798 obtained twenty arpens on 
Bayou Sara as a ranche, because her place across the bay was 
unsafe on account of the Indians. Her tract is bounded south 
by Bayou Tagouacha, a reminder of Bienville's Touacha In- 
dians. Higher, about Twenty-one Mile Bluff, was Dubroca, 
and there his Creole descendants have ever since remained. 

The neighborhood of first Fort Louis was not deserted. In 
1792 the widow Rochon obtained the very site, described as 
land twelve arpens front by forty deep, named the Bluff, " be- 
ing a piece of land called the Old Fort, distant about nine 
leagues from this place," situated on Mobile River. A short 
distance below this, James Innerarity established a cotton 
plantation, on which to work the negroes of his wife, Eloise 
Isabelle Trouillet, as she owned a number accustomed to agri- 
culture. He applied for a tract "forty arpens on the river by 
thirty deep, situated on both sides of a small spring [bottom?] 



316 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

commonly known by the name of Fond de Lourse, or other- 
wise the Old Fort Spring," situated between the plantation 
belonging to Diibroca and St. Philip and that of Rochon's at 
the Old Fort on the river." B. Dubroca and Peter Chastang; 
testify that the tract is vacant, and Perez grants it April 6,' 
1809, the intendancy being closed. Two years later we find a 
grant to Isabelle Narbonne bounded north by Innerarity's habi- 
tation and south by that of St. Philip. This she wanted as a 
brickyard for her son's slaves. ^ 

Dr. John Chastang lived at the bluff named for him, and 
there was growing up the colored Creole settlement represent- 
ing his blood. Simon Andry had given the name to his impos- 
ing bluff, and about there made tar. His hospitable house 
rendered a hotel unnecessary. His greatest claim to recollec- 
tion is, that he is said by his descendants to have brought there 
from Baton Rouge the ancestor of the innumerable Mobile 
chinaberry-trees. This is probably true. The tree is not 
native to this continent, and was brought to America by the 
French by way of their West Indian Islands. Above were 
Trenier, Mottus, Durette, Campbell, and other homes or grants, 
until we reach the St. Stephens region. 

Fort Charlotte had not remained the only Spanish post in 
this part of the country. Fort Tombeebe was still used as 
Fort Confederation. There Mme. Espejo went on her honey- 
moon. To conciliate the Indians, and perhaps to gviard against 
American aggression, a new fort also had about 1789 been 
erected by the government lower down upon the Tombigbee 
River, which was to give the name to a place familiar in South- 
ern history, — St. Stephens. The earthwork can still be dis- 
tinctly traced, and Collot represents the fort as a formidable 
work. Besides the fort there were a niunber of frame build- 
ings, generally covered with cypress bark. Only the block- 
house, church, and residence of commandant were plastered. In 
July, 1790, begin certificates from Lieutenant Joseph De Ville 
Degoutin, commandant of Fort St. Stephens, as to vacancy of 
tracts applied for on the "Tombagbe." Folch at Mobile is in 
such cases directed by Miro to put the applicant in possession. 

^ Translated Records, pp. 395, 116. As to Andry and the Chastangs, 
much has been learned from their descendants on the river and at Chas- 
tang's. Felix Andry, of Mobile, has been of especial assistance. 



IN THE COUNTRY. 317 

The garrison in 1791 was one company under Captain Fer- 
nando Lisora. 

Then for some years we have no record, but by 1795 there 
is considerable activity in lands about St. Stephens.^ Eslava's 
assistant at Mobile, Francis Fontanilla, had moved up there 
three years before, to become royal storekeeper of that post, 
and occupied a tract adjoining the fort; but his title was not 
perfected until 1798. He obtained before that a grant of 
twenty arpens front about a league from the fort. Hoan Soli- 
van gets ten arpens distant sixteen leagues from the fort, Adam 
Holinger twenty arpens somewhat nearer, Julian Castro ten, 
Tobias Rheams twenty, George Brewer twenty, John Baker 
fifteen, William Powell twenty, Cornelius Rains ten, John 
Johnston twenty, Daniel Johnston twenty, and Solomon Jan- 
son seven. Some of the other settlers were Blackbird, Bant, 
McGrew, Lorins, McCurtin, Brutin, Moore, and Daniel. A 
bayou which seems to be a landmark seventeen leagues below 
the post is called Three Mouths, and easily recognized still as 
Three Rivers above Mcintosh's. 

These later grants are for grazing or agriculture, and some 
of the lands are on one side, some on the other, of the Tom- 
becbe. While many concessions are near the fort, several are as 
much as eighteen leagues south. The procedure there was the 
same as at Mobile, — a petition to the governor-general, in- 
dorsed favorably by the commandant, — for example, Antonio 
Palaas, and a grant by Carondelet, directing the surveyor-gen- 
eral of this province, or his duly appointed deputy, to put the 
petitioner in possession. Most of the applicants state that they 
have already been in possession from one to ten years, and 
desire a grant so as to prevent interference by others. 

Among the conveyances of this vicinity we find that Wil- 
liam Turnbull in 1798 sells to Nathan Blackwell his tract at 
St. Stephens of six arpens front, acquired by grant from Miro 
in 1788.^ In that district, too, was the place Sanflor, our old 
Sunflower. Dominique Dolive obtained it in 1788, and now 
(by mark) sells to Young Gaines for $80.^ Two years later 
Adam Holinger (by his mark, A. H.) sells John CaUIer his 

1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 154 et seq. 

2 Ibid., p. 224. 
8 Ibid., p. 237. 



318 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

forty arpens front, seven miles below Fort St. Stephens, for 
$400 cash.i 

The first known sale of land ascertained by the new line to 
be within the United States was that of C. U. Demouy, for 
$250, October 23, 1800, to John Brewer, of twenty by forty 
arpens between lands of said Brewer and Dubroca. Demouy 
was the ancestor of the Mobile family of that name. Espejo in 
1801 acquires from Lieutenant B. Dubroca, as "attorney of the 
estate of the late John Turnbull & Co.,'.' a forty -ai-pen tract ;^ 
but he seems, to sell it immediately to Samuel Mims, an inhab- 
itant of Tensaw River, Washington County, for "five hundred 
silver dollars in Indian corn at the market price, to be paid on 
the first of January next."^ Espejo got 500 arj^ens on the 
Tombecbe, besides a tract of twenty arpens front across the 
river, also belonging to John B. Turnbull and John Joyce, 
deceased.^ This was at the Niava and Canes places. 

Ellicott gives an account of this part of the country as he 
found it at his visit in 1799. 

"The Mobile is a fine large river," he says, "and navigable 
some distance above the boundary for any vessel that can cross 
the bar into the bay. One square-rigged vessel has been as 
high as Eort St. Stephens, in latitude 31° 33' 44". . . . 

"About six miles north of the boundary, the Tombeckby 
and Alabama rivers unite,, and, after accompanying each other 
more than three miles, separate; the western branch, from 
thence down to the bay, is called Mobile. The Alabama 
retains its name u.ntil it joins some of its own waters, which 
had been separated from it for several miles, and then takes 
the name of Tensaw, which it retains until it falls into the 
bay. ... 

"The upland on these rivers is of an inferior quality from 
their mouths up to the latitude of Eort St. Stephens, and pro- 
duces little besides pitch-pine and wire-grass, but is said to 
become better as you ascend the rivers. The lands on those 
rivers have notwithstanding had a good character for fertility; 
but this has arisen from not discriminating between the upland, 
which is generally unfit for cultivation, and the banks of the 
rivers, which are fertile in the extreme, and to which agricul- 

* Mobile Translated Records, p. 251. ^ Ihid., p. 276. 

8 Ihid., p. 277. •* Ibid., p. 280. 



IN THE COUNTRY. . 319 

ture is almost wholly confined for a number of miles above the 
boundary. But those lands are subject to a great inconven- 
ience from the invmdations of the river. 

"Planting is not attempted in the spring until the waters 
have subsided; and it sometimes happens that inundations 
follow the first fall of the waters in the spring, and wholly 
destroy the previous labors of the planters. This was the case 
in May, 1799, after the corn was two feet high. But this in- 
convenience is by no means so great as it would be in a more 
northerly latitude; there still remains summer sufiicient to 
bring a crop of corn to full maturity." ^ 

On the Tensaw were many residents at first, although some 
moved to the Tombigbee. McCurtin had in 1787 obtained the 
Farmer place, but in 1790 described it as uninhabitable and 
moved up to St. Stephens. This Farmer place of 12,800 
arpens became, under McCurtin's will, the property of his 
widow, and she in 1810, as Mme. Diego McVoy, sold it for $650 
to Joshua Kennedy, including Rains' Creek and Farmer's 
Blufe.2 

This Stockton neighborhood is said to have been settled by 
Tory refugees. We find Roberts Walsenton, for one, acquir- 
ing twenty-four by fifty arpens on the south bank of the Bayou 
Defango, where it empties into the Tensaw, in order to con- 
tinue, after the running of the demarcation, a subject of the 
King of Spain, — whom God preserve.^ Of quite a different 
faith should have been Washington Wilkins, if one can judge 
from his name, who acquired for a residence and ranche the 
land south of Dubroca. 

Gerald Byrnes' tract was about three and a half leagues from 
the city, on the opposite side of the river, bounded north by the 
Apalaches and south by widow Bousage, and having as natural 
boundaries the Bayous Willoy (now Byrnes Creek) and Salome. 
Cornelius Dunn seems to have in 1793 or 1796 acquired at 
least part of Mme. De Lusser's Tensaw tract, it being for a 
cow range on Potato Creek. This title was, in the hands of 
Root, to prevail over that of De Lusser, represented by Hall.* 

1 ElUcott's Journal, pp. 200, 280. 

2 Mobile Deed Book "A," p. 69. 
2 Translated Records, p. 339. 

4 Ibid., p. 253 ; Hall v. Root, 19 Ala. p. 378. 



320 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

On Tensaw River also was White House, a landmark in the 
deeds. This had been the seat of the Apalaches, and there, 
near where that river turns west and the Apalache leaves it for 
the south, Joseph Chastang had 800 arpens. His use of it 
went back to 1780, although his grant dates from 1792, and 
after it passed to Joshua Blakeley of Connecticut it was to have 
quite an American history. From 1803 Louis Dolive lived on 
the bay, and his descendants have been numerous about the 
Village.^ The Trouillets also lived there.. 

The lower delta of the Mobile, unlike the part at and above 
Twenty-one Mile Bluff, had not been granted out to any great 
extent in French or English times. It was not suitable for 
habitation and its products were limited. We have seen 
Colomb obtaining Chucfa Island; and Henry Sossier in 1805 
received for cattle-raising the east half of an island extending 
from the Tensaw to Spanish River, always before, according 
to old residents, unoccupied. Thomas Powell, an honest, labo- 
rious man of large family, obtained the other half of this marsh 
land about the same time.^ The land in question, awkwardly 
described in the Translated Records, is that large double island 
extending from Spanish River and Grand Bay on the west to 
Tensaw River on the east, and from Raft River on the north 
to the Tensaw on the south, divided in two by Middle River, 
running roughly north and south. 

Sossier admits that the land had never been of any use, but 
pledges himself to ditch and fence and stock it with horses, 
cattle, and goats, as an experiment. Beef and milk were the 
two principal things aimed at. How far he succeeded we do 
not know, but Powell had cotton, rice, and corn growing on his 
land when he sold to Blakeley in 1808. Sossier sold to him 
in the same year for 11200, whereas Powell received $1800, 
having some improvements. The land was cultivated by 
Blakeley himself from 1810.^ Blakeley's name has stuck to 
the large marsh island farther west, directly across the river 
from Mobile. 

1 See Michel's petition before U. S. Senate, January 9, 1840, with Dolive's 
deposition attached. 

2 Translated Records, pp. 330, 335. 

^ "i American State Papers, p. 9; Mobile Records, Deed Book "A^" 
pp. 41, 45. 



IN THE COUNTRY. 321 

Other bayous and islands in the Mobile delta still bear French 
or Indian names, like the Bateau Bays, Chacaloochee Bay, 
etc. , although the history of these is lost, but there as elsewhere 
we find little distinctly Spanish. It is indeed remarkable 
that after a rule of thirty-three years so little survives of di- 
rect influence of the Spaniard. The explanation is that 
under Spain the population remained essentially French, 
with a sprinkling of British, while only the ruling class was 
Spanish. 

We see the same thing all around the bay, although the first 
two tracts south of the city are Spanish. These are the Eslava 
Bay Tract, adjoining the Mandeville, and that of Cornelius 
McCurtin (afterwards Diego McVoy) still further south, taking 
up much of the long peninsula between main Dog River and 
the bay. 

This Eslava Bay Tract (which is different from the Mill 
Tract) rests on papers not now known, but which were to sat- 
isfy the United States officials. The McVoy Tract of 4374.09 
acres was a claim of Cornelius McCurtin, who seems to 
have been trying first one part of the district and then another 
for residence or other purposes. Twenty acres at the mouth 
of Dog River was in 1798 the property of John Trouillet at a 
place called Bateau Panche. He wanted it for cattle, of which 
he had a large stock. 

Across that river was where lived Pierre Rochon, of Haldi- 
mandic memory, for much of our Hollinger's Island stood in 
the Rochon name, the origin of its modern titles. The 800 
arpens which Powell was to get from Innerarity as the executor 
of Trouillet 's widow, Isabelle Chastang, was probably south of 
Deer River, and not on the island. 

Mary Rochon, widow of Orbanne Demouy, for $400 sold 
John Murrell 1200 arpens situated "by the junction of Dog 
River" (Rio del Perro), about three leagues south of Mobile, 
belonging to her deceased husband, acquired by grant of Ca- 
rondelet. It was bounded north by Montlimar Creek and lands 
of Charles Lalande, south by another creek (Cedar in a later 
deed) and the same estate, west by public lands, and east by 
Dog River. Four months later Murrell sold the tract to Eli- 
phalet Beebe, and he in 1810 conveyed haK of it to Asa Beebe 



322 , COLONIAL MOBILE. 

for 8300. This is the Beebe tract at the mouth of Hall's Mill 
Creek. 1 

Farther down the west coast we know Bellefontaine. Charles 
Mioux had his house and plantation there, part of his unsur- 
veyed tract extending from Pierre Baptiste on the south to 
Deer River ^ (Rio del Gamo). Upon his death his heirs, who 
lived at Bay St. Louis, sold it to Mary Anne, a free mulat- 
tress, for sixty dollars, or its value in seven head of horned 
cattle, to be delivered at Pascagoula River on demand. She in 
turn sold in 1796 to Charles Lalande, a free man of color, for 
thirty dollars. 

Mon Louis Island (between the Bay and Rio del Gallina) was 
still owned by the Bodins (Baudins), and their man Maximilien 
Colin (a colored Creole) lived at Jack's BlufF, above the pecan - 
surrounded home of the Bodins at Miragouane. Henry Francois 
had been living on his tract near the north end for many years 
prior to 1808; and later we find Durands, connections of the 
Bodins, upon the island also. 

Across Mobile Bay a Spanish map shows settlements above 
the old French Village (Aldea), but none at modern Howard's ; 
and about Montrose have been found silver coins and antiquities 
more likely of this than De Soto's time. J. B. Loranding had 
six or seven arpens, with house and kitchen on it, at Red 
Bluff, about the site of the British summer camp of Croftown, 
and Lieutenant Ferriet was to buy it in 1805 for !|120.^ This 
neighborhood, near Rock Creek, is now .the seat of pottery and 
brick manufacture, and in Spanish times also was the site of 
kihis. Isabelle Narbonne, the widow Campbell, obtained a 
tract of twenty arpens front at the Bluffs in order to put her 
slaves at making brick and tile, and we have already seen the 
judicial proceedings by which Forbes & Co. in 1811 purchased 
the Trouillet brickyard there. Durnford had lived near Mon- 
trose, biit a place at Battle's seems also to perpetuate his name. 
It is the north boundary in the grant of 1800 to Eugenio La- 
valle, of Pensacola, of forty arpens by the visual depth at 
"Punta Clara," — the first mention of the famous summer 

1 Translated Records, pp. 373, 378, 381. See Mobile Deed Book "A," 
p. 73. 

2 Translated Records, p. 183. 

3 lUd., p. 334. 



IN THE COUNTRY. 323 

resort. In 1815 we find the partition among Baudin heirs of 
the classic district near by known as "Hog Range." ^ 

Fish River (Rio del Fez), where Lavalle had another grant, 
was better settled. Its east branch under the Spaniards was 
Rio del Salto, from the waterfall we find on English maps, as 
under the French it had been Le Saut. 

Daniel Jusan acquired by will Daniel Ward's property north 
of Fish River, and May 2, 1808, we find him selling thirty- 
five or forty arpens front to Henry Baudin for |200. Next 
year H. Baudin for $1000 sold N. Weeks this Old Ward 
Place, from Alligator Creek to the rock fronting the bay.^ 
Maps of tracts about Fish River show land to have been in 
great demand there. West of Weeks Bay was N. Cook, or 
Durette; south were Baudin, T. Powell, L. Flock, and A. 
Baudin; and east of the bay, J. Fernandez. Flock and his 
wife died of exposure, due to being captured by Indians and 
dragged to Pensacola. Their little daughter Catalina, then 
nine months old, was dashed against a tree and left by the 
savages for dead, but was found, and was brought up by Fon- 
tanilla on the west side of Mobile Bay. She lived to be Mme. 
Antonio Espejo. 

Up the east fork of Fish River, besides Weeks on the left 
bank, was on the right the mile-square place of Collins. He 
could drill his dragoons all on his own heath, near modern 
Magnolia Springs. 

Below on Mobile Bay was Bon Secours, under the Spanish 
Rio del Buen Socorro. John Ward in 1793 purchased a house 
and tract of land there, a mile from the mouth of the bay, from 
John Even. He discovered afterwards that Even had no title, 
and so he obtained a provisional grant in 1803 from Osorno 
to eight hundred arpens. Ward represented himself in his 
petition as the father of a large family.^ 

This neighborhood, too, was well settled. On the north of 
the Bon Secours River were the claims of the Cooks, N. and J., 
and La Coste. Augustin La Coste's claim, for 638.40 acres, 
originates from Perez's permit of December 2, 1803, and was 

1 Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 82. 

2 Translated Records, p. 353 ; Deed Book " A," p. 104. 
^ Translated Records, p. 309. 



324 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

confirmed by the United States in 1840.^ On the south were 
Johnson, F. Laney (Lamy?), and Buck; while lower, on Bon 
Secours Bay itself, was where W. E. Kennedy lived for so long. 
He seems in 1809 to have bought from F. Suarez a tract 
bounded east by Oyster Bay and west by Lime Kiln Creek, 
extending back twenty arpens.^ 

On Mobile Point (Pta. de la Movila) we recall two early 
grants, apart from the later claims of Suarez and others. The 
one was to Fr. Simon, for the fishing trade, of a tract on the 
bay, from Bon Secours River on the east to Bay Olivier on the 
west. The other was to John Courrege, to carry on the fishing 
trade between Mobile and New Orleans. It included the coast 
from Bay Andrew to Mobile Point, and on it this new inhabit- 
ant put up the first house. These grants would be valuable as 
giving safe refuges, apart from the oysters which have ever 
abounded there. Pleasant Navy Cove has always been a pilot 
settlement, and is famous for nectarines. There was no fort 
on tree-bare Mobile Point, and we do not know that the primi- 
tive lighthouse there in English times was kept up under the 
SjDaniards. But here was now the usual passage from Seno 
Mexicano into the bay, and Spanish maps carefully define the 
twelve-foot line within as well as the eighteen-foot channel at 
the Point and between adjacent bars. On the Gulf side, the 
mouth of the Lagoon is called Boca Ciega, — Blind Mouth. 

In the interior few are the old claims, even on watercourses, 
away from Mobile Bay. On Perdido Bay, only F. Suarez and 
J. Suarez occur on the western side, although S^Janish coins 
have been dug up among many Indian remains; and on the 
shore nearer Pensacola the swamps prevented much occupancy. 
Pensacola is outside our province, but its neighborhood and 
the shores of Escambia Bay and River for miles show grants, 
generally of the same twenty by forty arpens as about Mobile 
and its waters. 

Famous Dauphine Island had fallen into neglect. We have 
already seen how in 1781 it was all granted to Joseph Moro, 
and this was in American times confirmed to Augustin Lacoste, 
claiming under him. But across the centre of the island, on 
a line with little Dauphine and Pelican islands, ran the claim 
of Jean Baptiste Lamy. His settlement began in 1792, but 

1 6 Statutes at Large, p. 807. ^ Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 63. 



IN THE COUNTRY. 325 

was not founded on any grant ; and tliese two are tlie origin of 
the modern titles. There do not seem in Spanish times to have 
been many residents; and there is no indication that at this 
epoch the old port to the southeast was in use, except that in 
1785 the king maintained there a pilot and four sailors at an 
expense of |;696. Pass Drury would seem to be named from 
Thomas Drury, a settler only of 1812 and without a Spanish 
grant. ^ The names Isla Delfina, Isla Guillori, Isla Pelicano, 
and the like, show that the Spaniards here as elsewhere made no 
changes in nomenclature except to translate the French words 
into Spanish. 

The habitations of Grelot and Bosag3 may be those of the first 
residents of the pleasant Portersville mainland; but they were 
followed in later Spanish times by the Baptistes between Bayous 
Batterie and Coq d'Inde, and by the occupancy of McGrath, 
without a grant, of the land from Bayou Coq d'Inde to Bayou 
Common, the real location of Portersville. But, as on Mon 
Louis Island, the names of places still recall the French. Point 
aux Pins, Bayou La Batre (Batterie), Bayous Coden (Coq 
d'Inde), Coquilles, Common (Commun), Fowl (Poule) River, 
are French. "Pass Sweet," under Cedar Point, is a ludicrous 
Americanization of Passe aux Huitres, — Oyster Pass. 

Pass Christian was also within the jurisdiction of Mobile, as 
we learn from a deed by Jidia de la Brosse, the widow Car- 
riere, November 5, 1799. She does not sign, because blind, 
but acknowledges before witnesses. The conveyance deeds to a 
negro Charles and family (who had rendered her many services 
in her sickness) twenty by forty arpens on the seashore, out of 
the tract acquired by her under the English domination from 
his "Excellency Aldeman, Governor-General of Pensacola at 
that period, the titles of which property were burned at the 
office of Mobile when the Spaniards conquered the town."^ 
This is interesting as the only mention of General Haldimand 
in the Translated Records, and possibly the only instance of 
his granting lands. 

Biloxi, nearer Mobile, always continued a settlement, even if 
across its bay to the east the memory of Fort Maurepas was lost 
in the oaks and pines of that promontory. Piernas early made 

* 3 American State Papers, p. 393 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 81. 
2 Translated Records, p. 249. 



326 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

a grant to the widow of Baptiste Cxiristian, who had lived at 
Biloxi since her birth ; and a little later Mathurin and Careaux 
obtained land on Dumanon Poin ;, bounded south by the sea 
and east by "the mouth of the Bay of the Old Fort," for cul- 
tivation and other uses. Jame'i Innerarity in 1809 became the 
owner of Round Island, once the property of Francis Krebs.^ 

The new boundary line in ^798 drove some settlers as far as 
Pascagoula. So Adam Hollinger, son-in-law of Pierre Juzan, 
who had lived on the Ton.becbe,^ and Gerald Byrnes, a car- 
penter and farmer too, obtained 800 arpens at Ward's Bluff 
for a cattle range, and as much again for cultivation on Bayou 
Ward, two and a half miles south of the old French sawmill.^ 
In 1804 he sold the place to Espejo, and he immediately to 
Joseph Collins. The next year Isaac Ryan, a carpenter, 
brought up amo^ig the French, also obtained a grant there of 
300 arpens for himself and family. He moved from St. Ste- 
phens, he said, because he could not expect the same tranquil- 
lity under th^^ Americans as under his Catholic Majesty.^ 

Lanzos could not certify about occupancy of lands at Pas- 
cagoula, as he more than once frankly advised Gayoso. But 
when Ambroise Gains obtained 500 arpens, this petitioner 
produced the indorsement of Charles Ellier, Peter and Francis 
Krebs, James Nadeau, and Francis Colin. He had already 
been farming there, and as a quiet American he obtained his 
grant. ^ 

Betsy Wilson, an old inhabitant of Pascagoula, in 1801 
obtained twenty by forty arpens front on both sides of that 
river, including the first bluff "below the confluence of the 
rivers Chicasaha and Estopacha " (Pascagoula), about three or 
four miles south of the United States boundary, and she also 
had a ferry across Bayou Billieu. Special deputy surveyor 
Joseph Collins was duly directed to lay off the bluff tract. 
Whether this led to the acquaintance of Collins and Elizabeth 
Wilson is not stated, but Collins before 1805 took up his resi- 
dence at Pascagoula and married her. The ceremony was per- 
formed, not by the Mobile priest, but by Mr. White, syndic 

^ Translated Records, pp. 19, 26, 363. 

2 Ibid., p. 225. 

3 Ihid., pp. 229, 230. See pp. 317, 318. 

4 Ibid., p. 231. ^ Ibid., p. 232. 



IN THE COUNTRY. 327 

of tlie place. Tliey had several children, and one, Sidney, was 
to settle in the United States Supreme Court that a civil mar- 
riage was valid among- Spanish colonists, the Council of Trent 
to the contrary notwithstanding. ^ 

Simon Cumbest, William Wilson, and the widow Krebs 
also obtained lands there, but the last mention of Pascagoula 
was in the big sale in 1804 by John Lynd to William Simpson 
of 40,000 arpens on the river for 120,000. This was doubtless 
for the omnivorous house of Panton.^ 

Such was the country outside of the city. 

1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 274 ; 9 How. Rep. (U. S.), p. 174. 

2 Mobile Translated Records, pp. 275, 315, 316, 326. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

CHURCH OF THE IMJVIACULATE CONCEPTION. 

Under the Spaniards, Mobile and Pensacola were subject 
to the same ecclesiastical authority as New Orleans, but, for- 
tunately, escaped the scandalous dissensions which disgraced 
church government on the Mississippi. Louisiana and Florida 
under Spain were part of the diocese of Santiago de Cuba, 
whose bishop was James Joseph de Echeverria.^ After 
O'Reilly had subjugated Louisiana, this bishop in 1772 sent 
the Capuchin Eray Cyril de Barcelona to New Orleans as his 
vicar, with four Spanish fathers oi that order, none of whom 
came to Mobile. One was the Antonio de Sedella who as 
parish priest of New Orleans proved so insubordinate to the 
bishop, and was shipped back to Spain in 1787 by the gov- 
ernor for trying to introduce the Inquisition into this country. 
The year after Mobile was conquered, Cyril was from Rome 
appointed Bishop of Tricali and Auxiliar of Santiago de Cuba,^ 
but his actual diocese included New Orleans, Mobile, and Pen- 
sacola, and on account of these extensive visitations he was 
allowed ^4000 in addition to his regular 83000 salary. 

Cyril, both as vicar and as bishop, endeavored to reform the 
morals of priests and people of Lou^isiana, but met with secret 
apathy, if not open hostility. In 1786 he found it necessary to 
issue a pastoral calling more especially for the better obser- 
vance of Sunday.^ To his other difficulties was added that of 
race antagonism, for it was long before the French of Louisiana 
became reconciled to Spanish rule. 

The change of name of the Mobile j^arish to "Yglesia de 
Purissima Concepcion " seems to be due to Don Jose Espeleta, 
colonel of the infantry of Navarre, and from March 12, 1780, 
its records are in Spanish. The Immaculate ConceiJtion was 

^ Shea's ArchhbiJiop Carroll, p. 543. 

2 Ihid., p. 547. 8 Hid., p. 557. 



CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 329 

then a favorite Spanish dogma, and we find it even in the oath 
of the officials of Louisiana. ^ The new name of the church 
may have been the origin of that of Conception Street, where 
the old building was situated. 

The number of pastors is surprising, — thirteen until Ameri- 
can times ; but we read of the burial of at least two at their 
post. The first entries in the church records are by Fr. Salva- 
dor de Esperanza, who describes himself as "religiosomercena- 
rio y Parroco," — parish priest of the Mercedarian order. 
Almost his first duty was to enter Augustin Kochon. 

In June, 1781, begins in his stead Fr. Carlos de Veles, of the 
Capuchin order, who was both pastor of the city and chaplain 
of the garrison. Carlos prefers the term "campo santo" in- 
stead of the "cimenterio" of Salvador. Later priests use the 
two terms interchangeably. He buried Simon Fabre and 
Louis Carrier, but on June 5, 1783, Miguel Lam]3ort records 
the interment of Rev. Padre Carlos himself. 

Then comes Fr. Francisco Notario, a Dominican, as cura 
and capellan, and, in the fall of 1784, Fr. Joseph de Arazena, 
a Capuchin. He speaks of Mobile sometimes as "Villa," 
as did the others before him, but also sometimes as "Plaza de 
la Movila." He had previously been at Iberville, Louisiana.^ 

It is in the time of Arazena that we have the long entry, 
attested by Dubroca, Chastang Sr., Duret, Brontin, Landry, 
and others, dated December 25, 1784, which recites that El 
Sr. Dn. Henrique Grimarest, lieutenant-colonel of the army of 
his Catholic Majesty, actual "Governador y el Primero" since 
the Conquest, lost his wife Da. Anna Narbona, December 26, 
1783, and that she was buried in the public cemetery of the 
parish. On this anniversary he builds a brick vault for her 
remains and as his family tomb, and her obsequies are then 
duly celebrated. It is remarked incidentally that the church in 
use was in a ruinous state, and agreed that, if the king or 
inhabitants should rebuild it elsewhere, Grimarest would simi- 
larly change the location of the vault. She as well as he are 
spoken of in the highest terms. 

In 1785 are entries in French by I'Abbe de Levergy (Les- 
cuses, according to Shea) ^ as cure ; but next year Pedro Juan 

1 Shea's Archbishop Carroll, pp. 191, 543. ^ Ibid., p. 546. 

3 Ibid., p. 192 n. 



330 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Eon writes in Spanish again. Eon we know was a man of 
means, and learning too, bnt he died soon. 

In 1787 is recorded by Lamport tlie death of Louis Bodin. 
Most of the entries relate to Spaniards, from Malaga, Se- 
villa, Galicia, etc., generally soldiers or officials; but in the 
next year we find an exception in Joseph Calvert, a native of 
"la provincia de la Virginia, en los Estados Unido," who had 
been duly received into the church. The well-known Lamport 
and McKenna were among the Irish priests sent over from the 
College of Salamanca in 1787 to convert and hold the English 
in Louisiana and Florida.^ 

From December, 1789, for three years, we have Fr. Manuel 
Garcia, a Franciscan, as parish cura, who speaks of Mobile as 
"Ciudad de la Movila," the title which he uses also for the City 
of Mexico. It became his duty in 1790 to bury his predeces- 
sor. Dr. Miguel Lamport, "Clerigo Presbutero y Cura." 

In December, 1792, begins Constantine McKenna as "Cura 
Parroco," and he next year officiated at the funeral of Antonio 
Narbonne, captain of infantry, and two years later at that of 
Don Pedro Trouillet. In the time of McKenna came the 
rebuilding of the church, which was needed even eight years 
before. 

The kings of Spain, under Ferdinand's contract with Popes 
Alexander VI. and Julius II., in consideration of obtaining for 
the sovereign all tithes and the right of patronage, became 
bound to provide for religious instruction in America, and 
therefore to build churches. 

In 1792 the De Lusser heirs for $200 sold two lots, of twelve 
and a half toises front by twenty-five deep, to the king for the 
sole use and purpose of erecting thereon a parish church and 
dwelling-house for the parish priest, but with the privilege of 
holding or selling the premises at his sovereign pleasure. It 
was part of the property acquired by Mme. De Lusser, 1757, 
from Governor Kei-lerec.^ 

This land was at the northwest corner of Conti and Royal 
streets. On the corner lot was duly erected the parsonage, and 
on the next, facing Royal, the parochial church, destined to 
survive until 1827. In the public archives Lanzos commemo- 

^ Shea's Archbishop Carroll, p. 557. 
^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 121. 



CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 331 

rates tlie march of the garrison behind McKenna, as he bore 
the cross from the old church to the new foundation, where the 
corner-stone was duly laid, January 31, 1793. The whole 
work, including parsonage (casii) as well as church, was duly 
completed by Joyce, the contractor, and on May 22, after 
official inspection by carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths com- 
missioned by the commandant, accepted for the crown. It may 
be that the erection of this new church was due to the energy of 
McKenna and the influence of Bishop Cyril. This bishop 
may have lacked in tact, but certainly not in good works and 
intentions for the prosperity of his see. 

Cyril has been badly treated by history. His efforts for the 
reform of the Gulf coast proved almost fruitless, and the king 
relieved him of his office in 1793 and directed him to retvirn 
to Spain. 1 He went to Havana, however, and was still there 
in 1799. The reason alleged for deposing him was, "the 
deplorable state of religion and ecclesiastical discipline," and 
to correct this the jsrovinces of Louisiana and Florida were 
next erected into a diocese, bounded east by the American see 
of Baltimore and west by the Mexican sees of Linares and 
Durango.2 

The first bishop was Louis Peilalver y Cardenas, a native of 
Havana, a good and experienced man, who arrived at New 
Orleans in July, 1795. He found the inhabitants very lax in 
their church duties, much of it being due to intermixture of 
Protestants and to the democratic and free-thinking tendency 
of the French. Penalver issued regulations on taking charge, 
which relate more especially to the conduct of the clergy, and 
then set about visiting the different parishes. In 1798 is a 
memorandum of a visitation at Mobile, but the entry of "visi- 
tado " on the Mobile register is signed, not by the bishop, but 
by a "secretario," whose name seems to be Ysidro Quintero. 
In this year we know Penalver was at Pensacola,^ and there can 
be little doubt the entry was made while the clear eyes of his 
round, mother-like face were overseeing the affairs of Mobile, 
too. 

The cession of Louisiana to France in 1800 was not generally 
known, but when Penalver in 1801 was promoted to the see of 
1 Shea's Archbishop Carroll, pp. 568, 569. ^ j^^^ ^ 570. 

3 Ibid., p. 579. 



332 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Guatemala his place in Louisiana and Florida was not filled. 
Canon Thomas Hassett and Rev. Patrick Walsh were appointed 
administrators of the diocese by Penalver when he left, but 
Hassett soon died, leaving Walsh to fight it out with the schis- 
matic Sedella in New Orleans. 

Mobile escaped that scandal. The bishop of Havana ex- 
tended his authority over the Florida portion of the diocese^ 
and this lasted until a rearrangement in American times, when 
Michael Portier became vicar-apostolic of Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi.^ 

McKenna is probably the best known of the Spanish j)riests, 
and his flowing English hand is much more legible than that 
of his predecessors. He generally speaks of the church as 
"Iglesia de Nra. Sra. de la Mobila," which denotes no change 
of name, for he often has "Nra. Sra. de la Concepcion" also. 
In his time came the deaths of Santiago de la Saussaye and 
Valentin Dubroca, among other well-known names. 

From 1800 we have pastor Juan Francisco Vaugeois, whose 
entries are peculiar in that the "Juan Francisco" is always in 
the handwriting of the main entry, while the "Vaugeois" is a 
regular and separate signature, with flourish, in another hand. 
To him it fell to administer the last rites of his church to 
Toinette Dufey, Pedro Juzan, Simon de Castro, and Domingo 
Dolive. At the Castro interment we find witnesses, — almost 
the only instance under the Spaniards; and they are Antonio 
Espejo and Rafael Hidalgo. The surgeon's is in a neat, small 
backhand, while the other is almost undecipherable. 

A separate register was kept for negroes, who are generally 
slaves, although free mulattoes occur, — such as Juan Batista 
Lusser in 1797. The only difference in the style of entry, and 
that possibly unintentional, is that for "body" the word in the 
white register is "cuerpo;" in the colored, "cadaver." The 
free colored persons held slaves themselves. One or more is 
mentioned of Julia Vilard, and at least two of Simon Andry. 
A number of slaves are mentioned of the house of Forbes, — 
" de la Casa de Dn. Juan Forbes," 

This negro register comes down later than the other, and 
shows two entries in 1807 by Sebastian Pili (or Piti), and others 
the next year by Dn. (or Dr.) Francisco Lennon, both appar- 
^ Shea's Archbishop Carroll, pp. 585, 589. 



CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 333 

ently acting as pastors ad interim. In 1809 began Vicente 
Genin, who continued until 1823. 

The parsonage lot was 65 French feet on Royal by 150 on 
Conti (then called Church), and the church grounds next north 
had a front of 85 feet. The parsonage had a house, outbuild- 
ings, and fruit trees. It was the regular residence of the 
♦acting priest, although we also find McKenna obtaining a grant 
to a larger place at the north end of Royal (16 by 20 toises), 
probably above St. Anthony. He said he wanted to have more 
room for a garden and stock. He only kept the new lot a 
short time, for he sold it in 1800 for $>50 to John Forbes & Co. 
It was probably too far from the scene of his duties at the 
church and hospital.^ 

Pastor Vaugeois lived in the old parsonage until 1803, but 
the authorities allowed it to become so dilapidated, that, fear- 
ing it would fall on his head, he moved out in that year, and by 
direction of the intendant rented a house somewhere in the 
suburbs for ten dollars a month. The parsonage was leased 
out to less timid tenants, and in the winter of 1806-7 Dr. 
William E. Kennedy occupied it at a rental of six dollars a 
month, he making necessary repairs. Kennedy had taken the 
oath of allegiance to the Spanish king, and was therefore per- 
mitted by Governor-General Folch and Commandant Osorno to 
settle in Mobile and practice medicine. 

Vaugeois, also, found his residence too far from his dvities, 
and on January 27, 1807, while in Pensacola, petitioned 
Morales to be allowed to jsurchase the old parsonage at some 
fair valuation. It seems that a friend of his had promised to 
make repairs if Vaugeois bought the place. ^ 

But other applicants appeared, when St. Maxent, after consid- 
ering this, reported that the place should be repaired or sold. 
Two weeks later Thomas Price asked for it, in consideration of 
having had to sell his own house from not receiving for two 
years pay as interpreter; and the same day Kennedy asks that 
it be sold at auction, as he, too, would like to make a bid on it, 
— rather scouting the idea of a private sale to the priest or 
any one else. 

1 Mobile Translated Records, pp. 235, 267. 

^ Kennedy v. Collins, printed record for U. S. Sup. Ct. See 10 How. Rep., 
p. 174. 



334 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Morales issued a decree of sale on February 18, 1807, direct- 
ing the commandant to advertise it by posting bills three times, 
nine days at a time, and to apj)oint two mechanics to appraise 
the house and two citizens to appraise the ground, all, as usual, 
to act under oath and in the presence of assisting witnesses. 
Proposals would be received by the commandant pending the 
advertisement. 

St. Maxent appointed as assisting witnesses to notify sur- 
veyor, appraisers, etc., Francisco Caiiedo and Rafael Suez, for 
want of a royal notary public in Mobile, and they were duly 
sworn. Canedo we often find attesting conveyances in the same 
capacity. All of the appointees were duly sworn, and acted in 
their respective capacities. As carpenters we have Antonio 
Nicolas and Francisco Guiral, and as blacksmiths the even bet- 
ter known Juan Murrell and Thomas Powell. The mason work 
was to be valued by "the only intelligent man in that depart- 
ment," Marcos Lopez, while B. Dubroca and Rafael Hidalgo 
were to appraise land and fruit trees. Collins was to plat 
the property, and Price to act in case any of the "above 
individuals should not possess the Castilian idiom," he be- 
ing official interpreter of the French and Spanish languages. 
On the 24th of March all repaired to the parson's house at 
9 A. M. with the witnesses and made valuation, resulting as 
follows: Ground, 8130; carpenter work, $400; blacksmith, 
$17.04; mason work, |120; total, 1667.04, in hard silver, the 
decimals being rials. 

The only bids received were one from Thomas Powell of 
$700 and one from Pedro Vinsant of $725, which were for- 
warded to Pensacola with the other original papers, a transcript 
of 18 pages being filed in the Mobile archives. 

Here our record stops ; but we know the sale was duly held 
on June 1, 1807; that Miguel Eslava bid $805, got the pro- 
perty, and was duly put in possession by the intendant.^ 

This northwest corner of Royal and Conti is now a saloon, 
but previous to the great fires in the first part of this century 
was occupied by the United States Hotel, a famous inn. In 
1827 the Eslava title was contested by the Catholic authorities; 
but the Alabama Supreme Court concluded, on consideration of 
the evidence, that, while the land was bought by the King of 
^ Antones v. Eslava, 9 Porter (Ala.) Rep., pp. 527, 532. 



CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 335 

Spain from the De Lussers and used for a churcli parsonage, 
there was no trust to retain it for that use, and that the Eslava 
purchase in 1807 was valid. 

We have no picture of the adjacent church, unless a rather 
conventional gabled house with cross on one end, in Dinsmore's 
map of about 1821, is intended as such. This represents it 
with its length, not end, on Royal Street, and certainly bears 
out the unfavorable description by the Saxon duke Bernhard, 
of Saxe Weimar, who saw it in January, 1826. He describes 
it as resembling a barn, and having a high altar with vessels 
of tin and a picture of no value, while on the sides of the room 
were two small altars. ^ It may have looked far different under 
the Spaniards, when the whole population was Catholic and it 
had the weight of official influence. 

No more interesting page occurs in the American State 
Papers than that recounting what is known of the history of 
the graveyard of 400 by 300 feet at the intersection of Dauphin 
and Franklin streets. ^ Much of the eloquent reasoning there 
is pure conjecture; but we learn that from the nineties, at 
least, the cemetery was located on this, the site of the present 
Cathedral Square, Catholic Orphan Asylum, bishop's residence, 
and the property from Dauphin to Conti now or lately owned 
by the Catholic Church. It was in the pine woods in those 
days. Spanish funerals, like that of Simon Andry, may have 
wended their course out Dauphin, but the more natural route 
would be from the church west along our Conti to the inclosure. 
The cemetery'was in ruins in 1793, but Lanzos then ordered 
that the "campo santo " be kept in better condition by the citi- 
zens and the graves protected from stock. 

With the city growth in American times, many of the remains 
were to be transferred to what has now in its turn become the 
Old Graveyard, on Bayou Street, south of Government. But 
graves under Conti Street have even recently been revealed 
by the digging of a sewer. 

1 2 Travels in North America, pp. 31, etc. 

2 5 American State Papers, p. 131. 



CHAPTEK XXXIX. 

THE INDIAN TRADE. 

The English and Americans recognized the Indian title and 
extinguished it by treaty ; the French and Spanish rather re- 
garded the savages as subjects and made no special purchases 
of the territory, which they considered already property of the 
king. As the price paid by the English was always insignifi- 
cant, the practical result was the same to the Indians; but it 
cannot be denied that the Latin immigrants, fewer and less 
aggressive, did not extinguish the native races, although at first 
more cruel, while the self-assertive Anglo-Saxons have all but 
wiped them from the earth, Mexico is largely Indian yet; in 
the United States the aborigines are curiosities. 

All these governments recognized the avidity of the Indians 
for simple wares, firearms, and liquor, and, with each, control 
was from the first a question of trade. It was so with the Iro- 
quois, swaying between the influences of Albany and Montreal ; 
it was so later in the Ohio Valley ; and it was so nearer Mo- 
bile with the natives in the southern mountains between the 
colonies of England and Spain. The early trade was jDrinci- 
pally by wood-rangers, but from the beginning the respective 
governments made presents to the chiefs at every conference 
and kept open table for them at the posts. Under the English 
and Spanish, there was more system. 

On the Spanish side of the line the trade was by individuals, 
but under government supervision; and after 1789 Panton, Les- 
lie & Co., from their several headquarters, were in effect the 
agents of Spain in intercourse with the Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
Creeks, and even Cherokees.^ The prices were fixed both for 
buying skins and selling goods, and fixed to meet American 
competition from Georgia and the Carolinas. Their pack- 
horses carried goods and their traders brought news, and even 
official communications, from the Ohio region to the Gulf. The 
J 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 326, 329. 



THE INDIAN TRADE. 337 

Indian treaty of alliance with Spain in 1792 was largely due 
to tliat firm. This trade kept on through war and peace, and 
even through the disturbed times of William Augustus Bowles, 
who influenced the Creeks in opposition to McGillivray, but was 
captured and delivered to the Spaniards by him in 1792. He 
returned, however, and in 1800 destroyed Panton's house at 
St. Mark's. Until his final capture in 1804, this American 
adventurer was to ruin their commerce in every way he could, 
by sea and land.^ 

The house lost money, particularly after the death of their 
silent partner McGillivray in 1793 near Mobile, but the gov- 
ernors appreciated the value of their services, and from 1794 
induced them to continue the business and look to the king for 
indemnification. Their "dead capital" by 1800 was estimated 
at almost 8400,000,^ and included their stocks, salaries, ex- 
penses, and claims against the Indians. "The debts due the 
actual house," wrote a Spanish official of the time, "must 
amount to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, rather 
more than less ; in time of peace they would amount, as ex- 
perience has shown, to one hundred and eighty thousand dol- 
lars. The lots, buildings, tools for that trade, amount to forty 
thousand, more or less. These sums form a dead capital of two 
hundred and twenty thousand. The debts of the Indians and 
traders are scarcely ever diminished; and if this happens at 
some times, at other times they are increased in proportion. 
To this dead capital must be added the labor of sixty workmen, 
besides that of the negroes or servants, to prepare a post and 
pack the skins ; to that must be added the value of two vessels, 
of from two hundred and twent}^ to two hundred and fifty tons 
each, for the houses of Pensacola and Mobile, and a brigantine 
of one hundred and fifty tons for St. Augustine, with three 
smaller vessels of from fifty to ninety tons, absolutely necessary 
for the trade and communication between these three said fac- 
tories; equally are to be charged the goods or merchandise 
which must always be on hand in the respective store-houses, 
and those which are navigating, going and coming from Europe, 
whose value can, without exaggeration, be stated at more than 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, forming a total of 

1 2 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 116, 192. 

2 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 326, 333. 



338 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. To this immense 
sum must be added other annual inevitable losses, without any 
other profit or advantage than to conserve the friendship of the 
Indians, in order not to lose the interest and confidence of the 
traders, so useful to know from them all the information neces- 
sary to the interest of the house, and political views of govern- 
ment, to which it has always contributed in a most complete 
way. One of these expenses is the cost of the open table (an 
indispensable circumstance and of absolute, necessity) which the 
house keeps for the Indian chiefs, the traders and factors 
employed in its trade, hospitably receiving likewise all the other 
transient Indians. Another very great expense is the presents, 
which, besides those made by the government, the house is 
obliged to make to the head men of the distant nations who 
frequently come to its stores, and which cannot be estimated 
at less than eighteen thousand dollars."^ Little of this could 
have been realized if the great house was forced to discontinue 
business. 

The claim against the Lower Creeks or Seminoles was finally 
settled by cessions of land at the mouth of the Apalachicola 
River. The first of these purchases was in 1804, in consider- 
ation of the sum of $66,533 of debts, besides admitted rob- 
beries; and Forbes & Co. (successors of Panton, Leslie & Co.) 
were put in possession two years later on petition to Folch, then 
at Mobile. The second purchase was in 1811 for 119,387.04^, 
and there was also a third cession of an island, all in the same 
vicinity. Each was by full council of all chiefs and in the pre- 
sence of the Spanish officials. The total amount of land was 
1,200,000 acres, mostly pine barrens.^ The claim for indem- 
nity was never abandoned, and was under consideration in Spain 
at least from 1794. It grew with the years; and a new item 
set out by Forbes in 1818 related to slaves and goods stolen or 
otherwise lost during the Anglo-American war of 1812, despite 
the efforts of the house, through its armed vessels, to recover 
them. It, too, was finally settled by a similar cession in 1818 
by Spain of one and a half million arpens of adjoining lands ; 
for Spain did not, as U. S. agent Seagrove predicted, sacrifice 
the house which had maintained her hold on the Indians.^ The 

1 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 333, 334. 

2 iiifj^^ pp. 713^ 724, 356, 3G2. ^ jf,i^_^ pp. 349^ 350, 354, 723. 



THE INDIAN TRADE. 339 

losses were estimated at about $100,000, and the land was to 
be in full compensation. 

The trade with both Choctaws and Creeks was by trail and 
river ; but the Creeks, going by land, of course went mainly to 
Pensacola, because nearer. That trail went northeast through 
Burnt Corn towards Tookabatcha and the heart of the confed- 
eracy, who were thus enabled to compare Florida and Carolina 
prices. 

The trade of the eastern Choctaws was with Mobile alone. 
Fort Tombecbe on the river, rehabilitated as the Spanish Fort 
Confederation, was again an outpost, and the trading path from 
Mobile northwestwards to the Choctaw nation was one of the 
best known things in local geography. It seems near the town 
to have about followed the line of the present Spring Hill 
Avenue and Centre Street, and crossed Bayou Chateaugue at 
Murrell's Ford, sometimes called the Portage. Thence on, in its 
southern part, it was not far from the later St. Stephens Road, 
and can be traced still higher at intervals, — as, for instance, 
at old Washington Court-House. It crossed what was later 
the north boundary of Mobile County, and continued on north- 
westwardly into the present Mississippi among the main Choc- 
taw villages. The point where it crossed the 31st degree of 
latitude, and where it crossed the fifth township north, was in 
American times to be the starting-place for several counties. 
The road became in 1809 the west boundary of Baldwin and 
Washington counties.^ 

The fertile lands on the Tombigbee and lower Alabama riv- 
ers, the seat now of vast cotton production, were not thickly 
settled by the Indians ; for the main seats of the Choctaws were 
in the lower half of our Mississippi, where they lived in 
northern, southern, and western districts under separate chiefs. 
Columbus, Meridian, Demopolis, and Selma had no special 
Indian predecessors, although Pushmataha lived near Meridian. 
But it would be a mistake to think of the region about the 
Tombigbee as uninhabited. The district between that and the 
Alabama River was claimed by both Choctaws and Muscogees ; 
and Choctaw mounds are not infrequent, especially from what 
is now called the Fork of Greene County in a line up towards 
Tuskaloosa, where many remains still exist. At Durden's 
^ Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, pp. 81, 82. 



340 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Landing, human bones have been found on the river edge ; and 
beyond Forkland are many mounds, some twenty feet high and 
a hundred in diameter. Over the Warrior River, near Car- 
thage, has been dug up the skeleton of an Indian seven feet high. 
Across the river from Bladon was at one time a village, and the 
records of Washington County show cessions by later chiefs of 
the lower Tombigbee towns. 

The United States early took hold of the Indian problem. 
To prevent the abuse which had grown out of indiscriminate 
trading, Congress in 1790 by one act provided for treaties with 
the tribes, and by another restricted trade to such persons as 
should be licensed and bonded by the government. ^ Washing- 
ton as a youth had been much with the Indians, and when Presi- 
dent he was from 1791 untiring in his efforts to protect them 
in their rights and afford them the kind of commerce they 
needed. On one occasion recalled by Pushmataha he advised 
them to cultivate the soil, since game would necessarily grow 
scarcer. Experience showed that individuals could not cope 
with the great Pensacola-Mobile house, and so, in a message of 
1793, he recommended that the government take charge of this 
trade. He thought the matter so important that the United 
States should be satisfied if reimbursed their outlay. ^ 

This bore fruit in 1796, when Congress authorized the Presi- 
dent to establish government trading-posts, and made necessary 
appropriations for that purpose. March 28, 1797, he made a 
treaty with the Creeks by which that nation ceded lands for 
such posts; and shortly afterwards we find Colonel Benjamin 
Hawkins among the Creeks as government agent, and among 
the Choctaws John McKee in the time of President Adams. 

The first government f actoi-y for the Choctaws was a few miles 
away from Fort Confederation. There the United States agent 
resided and sold goods to the Indians, largely on the credit of 
skins to be supplied by them. The name Factory Creek still 
marks the location. At such posts deerskins and other Indian 
wares were bought, and supplies, particularly domestic articles 
and animals, were sold to them on government account. The 
United States at these factories did directly what Spain at 
Mobile and Pensacola did indirectly through Panton, Leslie & 

^ 1 U. S. Statutes at Large, pp. 136, 137. 
'' 2 12 Washington's Works (Sparks), pp. 20, 30, 40. 



THE INDIAN TRADE. 341 

Co. and their successors. The cultivated Silas Dinsmore 
was long the government factor, first on the Chickasahay (near 
Quitman) and then in Pucksheuubbee's district, west of Pearl 
Kiver. He incurred the enmity of General Jackson for en- 
forcing passports for slaves of travelers, ^ exacted mainly during 
his attempts to suppress the famous Murrell gang. In 1802 
the United States authorities were considering the propriety of 
establishing a military post for the protection of this Chick- 
asahay factory, but the establishment really did not need it. 
The Indians transferred to these institutions the respect which 
they formerly showed the traders. When Dinsmore left the 
northern Choctaw district, that of Mushulastubbe, he seems to 
have relied on the influential interpreter John Pitchlyn, resi- 
dent at the mouth of the Oktibbeha, to control those Choctaws. 
Dinsmore was enthusiastic at both his stations in improving 
the condition of the savages. He induced them to make larger 
truck patches, added cotton to their crops, and introduced 
poultry, hogs, and horses. The Mayhew missionaries received 
his warm support. He married a Philadelphia lady, and with 
Africans operated a large plantation near the agency. 

One of the severest blows to the Spaniards was finding St. 
Stephens on the American side of the boundary line of 31° pro- 
vided for in the second article of the treaty of October 27, 1795. 
But when a detachment of American trooj)s marched across from 
Natchez, the Spaniards promptly surrendered the place, on May 
6, 1799, and Lieutenant John McClary of the second infantry 
received the post for the United States. These troops did not 
remain long, as they proceeded southwardly to near the actual 
line, and at Ward's Bluff, among beautiful oaks, built Fort 
Stoddert in July, named for the acting secretary of war.^ 
St. Stephens, however, flourished for many years as a town and 
as the seat of the U. S. Indian factory established by Joseph 
Chambers in 1803. Chambers induced George S. Gaines to 
leave a position in Tennessee and come as his assistant in 1805. 
Gaines succeeded him next year, and, as the old buildings were 
in decay, in 1811 built as a warehouse, above the fort, probably 
the first brick house in what is now Alabama, outside of 

^ 1 Parton's Jackson, p. 349. 

^ Information from War Department. As to Gaines, see his Reminis- 
cences in Mobile Register in June and July, 1872. 



342 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Mobile. The old fort was on a bluff above, while the Ameri- 
can town grew up just below the ravine. Its commercial 
importance, predicted by Romans and Ellicott, was due to the 
fact that it was at the head of sloop navigation; for McGrew's 
Shoals just above prevented the passage, at the usual stage of 
water, of everything except canoes. For this reason the gov- 
ernment factory at St. Stephens naturally became the centre of 
American influence among the Choctaws. 

Gaines was for a while embarrassed by the duty exacted by 
the Spaniards at Mobile even on the Federal goods for the sav- 
ages; but in 1810, although the Indians only permitted pack- 
horses and not the wagon-road desired, he opened a new route. 
His supplies were sent from Pittsburg down the Ohio and 
Mississippi, and he had them barged up the Tennessee to Col- 
bert's Ferry and then carried overland to the Tombigbee. 
Pitchlyn's activity and influence were of the greatest assistance 
in forwarding the goods down the river to St. Stephens. The 
next year he found it necessary to have his boat boxed in and 
armored with beef hides as a protection against Indian bullets ; 
for the time was near when the American Indian policy was to 
break down, from the savage distrust of the rapid increase of 
the white settlements. 



CHAPTER XL. 

MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 

Virginians and other pioneers (all called Virginians by the 
Indians) crossed those Alleghanies which Iberville designated 
as barriers, and formed the new States of Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. Georgians, too, were passing through the Creek and 
Choctaw country and settling about Natchez and on the Tom- 
bigbee, while the region of the Tennessee River from 1805 had 
its immigrants also. 

Georgia, like the other colonies, had claimed under her charter 
to the Mississippi River (as shown on Adair's map of 1775), 
if not farther, and her Yazoo sales of 1789 and 1795 threat- 
ened conflict with the Federal government. They were cer- 
tainly productive of much fraud. The purchase of her rights, 
however, by the United States in 1802, for a million and a 
quarter dollars, removed the trouble. Meantime, on Ajjril 7, 
1798, the Territory of Mississippi was created, extending from 
the Chattahoochee to the Mississippi River north of 31° north 
latitude. At first the north boundary was rune parallel from 
the mouth of the Yazoo, but it was in 1804 changed to the line 
of Tennessee. 

President Adams made Winthrop Sargent of New England, s/ 
formerly secretary of the Northwest Territory, the first gov- 
ernor; and General Wilkinson promptly built and occupied 
Fort Adams, near Davion's old mission, on the first bluff north 
of the demarcation line. The governor, under his extensive 
powers, then by proclamation divided the Natchez district into 
counties. On June 4, 1800, he created Washington County, 
extending from Pearl River to the Chattahoochee, and having 
a population of 733 whites and 494 slaves, besides 23 free 
negroes. A representative; government had been already 
established, under which the general assembly met at Natchez 
on the first Monday in December, 1800. There were nine 
representatives from the three counties of Adams, Pickering, 



344 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

and Washington, — the last furnishing but one, the others, all 
on the Mississippi River, four each. 

President Jefferson appointed William C. C. Claiborne, of 
Tennessee, governor, who soon removed the capital from 
Natchez to the neighboring village of Washington. Claiborne's 
incumbency was marked by important events, among them the 
incorporation in 1803 of Natchez, with a mayor's court of 
extensive and summary jurisdiction, and the Choctaw treaty of 
the year before at Fort Confederation. This confirmed to the 
United States the old cession to the British of all land be- 
tween the Tombigbee and Mobile on the east and the Chick- 
asahay River on the west, south of the Hatchee-Tikibee Bluff 
on the Tombigbee. Brigadier-General Wilkinson signed for the 
United States, and Pushmataha and other chiefs for the three 
divisions of the Choctaw nation. 

James Wilkinson was one of the most adroit men of his 
time. He was of Maryland originally, and eminent in the 
Revolutionary War ; but, if he served under Washington be- 
fore Boston, he also followed Benedict Arnold in Canada, and, 
either naturally or by example, was to resemble the traitor 
more than the patriot. He went to Kentucky in 1784 to repre- 
sent Philadelphia merchants, and soon was prominent in the 
movement to make that a State independent of Vii'ginia. In 
1787 he followed his tobacco, flour, and bacon down the river 
to New Orleans, and obtained special trade privileges, and 
ultimately a pension that made him the leader in the Spanish 
conspiracy to make Kentucky subject or allied to Spain. 

This continued even after he became an officer in the United 
States army, and when general-in-chief he was strongly sus- 
pected of complicity in Burr's plans against both Spain and 
the Union. His commercial agent at New Orleans, Daniel 
Clark, seems to have proved the fact in a pamphlet; but a 
court-martial in 1811 gave him the benefit of a doubt. He 
was polished and persuasive, and, while he several times turned 
his coat, he always concealed his tracks. He published me- 
moirs, and managed to stand high in his country's annals, until 
Gayarre, after his death, unearthed his correspondence with 
the Spanish officials. 

Wilkinson and Claiborne were the commissioners who re- 
ceived for the United States from the French the possession of 



MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 345 

Louisiana on December 20, 1803 ; and when Claiborne became 
governor of that new province, Kobert Williams of North 
Carolina succeeded him in Mississippi Territory, whose Bigbee 
district claimed 1500 people. 

Under an act of Congress, Washington County w*as now 
erected into a judicial district, where the superior court, the 
germ of our later judicial system, was held on the first Mon- 
days in May and September. Harry Toulmin was appointed 
by President Jefferson first United States judge of this Tom- 
bigbee district. He entered on his duties in 1804 at Wake- 
field, near Mcintosh's Bluff, a place which he named for Gold- 
smith's vicar. 

He was already a man with a history. Born at Taunton, 
England, in 1766, he was, while a young man, a Unitarian 
minister with a large congregation. He was republican in 
sentiment, and, from too free expression of his sentiments in 
those early days of the French Revolution, found it necessary, 
in 1791, to emigrate to America. He became president of the 
Transylvania University at Lexington, then secretary of state 
of Kentucky, and compiler of a code of laws for that State. 
As secretary he promulgated the celebrated Resolutions of 
1798, strongly suspected to have been written by Madison, and 
ever after the platform of States' Rights Democrats. It was 
while secretary of state that he was appointed judge for Mis- 
sissippi, — "grand juge," as the Creoles always called him. 

Harry Toulmin was active in everything, but is chiefly 
remembered as compiler of the territorial laws in 1806 (as of 
those of Alabama in 1823), and for his fourteen years' tenure 
of office as Federal judge. A characteristic letter of his of 
August 28, 1808, apparently to the Mobile commandant, is 
preserved in the archives. It seems a Spanish subject named 
Kilcrease had murdered a Mobile Frenchman on the Tensaw 
above the line, and then escaped below it. Toulmin writes 
that if the Spaniards would deliver up the murderer he would 
see to a proper trial, or, if the commandant would try the 
man, he would get up the evidence. He closes with this noble 
and vigorous language : — 

"I embrace this opportunity of doing myself the honor to 
assure you that I feel exceedingly solicitous that no facility 
should ever be afforded, by a difference of national jurisdictions 



346 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

between settlements so contiguous, to the vicious and abandoned 
on either side of the line to commit depredations with imjDu- 
nity; and that, as far as it depends upon me, I shall always 
be ready to cooperate with good men of both governments in 
the suppression of villainy and licentiousness." 

The years 1.805 and 1806 marked the acquisition of part of 
the Tennessee valley from the Chickasaws and Cherokees, the 
agreement with the former being signed in the Chickasaw 
country for the United States by James Robertson, of Tennes- 
see, and Silas Dinsmore, of New Hampshire, United States 
agent in the western Choctaw district. Out of this. Governor 
Williams in 1808 created the county of Madison, which in 
two years more was to contain half the population of the Terri- 
tory. The same commissioners in 1805 acquired a grant from 
the Choctaws, at the treaty of Mount Dexter, of a strip to 
connect the Bigbee and Natchez districts, and extending in 
width from EUicott's Line to Choctaw Corner, crossing the 
Bigbee at Fallectabrenna Old Fields, below Tuscahoma. Dins- 
more ran the north and east lines, but needed the influence of 
Young Gaines to get it over the Bigbee Indians. ^ 

But these three grants, important as they were, needed high- 
ways to make them available. The wagon-road from Natchez 
to the Cumberland, crossing at Muscle Shoals, came a little 
earlier; but more important for the Mobile district was the 
Federal Military Road, cut by the United States in 1805, by 
permission of the Creeks, from the Ocmulgee in Georgia to 
Minis' Ferry on the Alabama. The line of this road can still 
be traced in part, as it was made the eastern boundary of 
Monroe County. There was also in the same year acquired 
from the Cherokees the right to a road from Knoxville across 
the Tombigbee to Natchez. No more important study can be 
found than that of the early roads ; for along them poured the 
immigration which has claimed the Southwest for the Anglo- 
Saxon civilization. But this advance was accompanied by 
alarms. 
^ In consequence of the claim of Spain that the Arroyo 

Hondo was the east boundary of Texas, General Wilkinson, in 

1 The facts in this chapter are derived from many sources, but, besides 
Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, special mention should be made of George 
S. Gaines' Reminiscences, in the Mobile Register, in June and July, 1872. 



MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 347 

1806, prepared for war. Besides his march to Natchitoches, 
he also contemplated the cajiture of Mobile f i-om Fort Stoddert, 
whose commandant was to be assisted by 200 Washington militia 
under Colonel James Caller, while other troops should make a 
feint in order to hold Pensacola quiet. Captain Peter Philii) 
Schuyler had succeeded Schaumburgh in 1804, and in 1807 
was himself succeeded by Captain E. P. Gaines. All were of 
the second regiment. 

But the movement against the Spanish possessions was soon 
dropped for a greater peril to Spain, and, as it was feared, to 
the United States alike. An American Iberville was thought 
to be planning a western empire which should be independent 
of the Atlantic seaboard. For as long as all west of the Mis- 
sissippi and south of 31° was Spanish, the grand future in 
store for the United States could not be imagined, and a Cortez- 
like invasion of the Southwest seemed more promising. 

The brilliant Aaron Burr had become an outcast from New 
York since his unfortunate duel with Alexander Hamilton, and 
after expiration of his term as Vice-President he turned to the 
Southwest to better his fortunes. He bought a Spanish claim 
on the Sabine, and from there would conquer Mexico. The 
popularity of the enterprise cannot be doubted, whether we 
consider Burr's discharge at Lexington in 1806, or the grand 
jury's action in Mississippi next year. But he delayed too 
long, and this allowed Jefferson's hostile proclamation to have 
its effect. 

Jefferson was not less inimical than were the friends of 
Hamilton, and the whole executive branch of the government 
hounded him. Burr fled when refused release at Washington, 
near Natchez, and on February 6 Governor Williams offered 
a reward of $2000. He made his way eastwardly, secreted by 
friends, and at last sought the house of Colonel Hinson, an 
admirer of his on the Tombigbee. Inquiring the road at the 
Wakefield tavern one night, where Colonel Nicholas Perkins 
and Thomas Malone were playing backgammon, he was recog- 
nized by Perkins from the description in the proclamation. 
Perkins, with Sheriff Brightwell, tracked him to Hinson 's, but 
there he fascinated Mrs. Hinson and the sheriff, too, as he did 
every one. Hinson was away at the time. Perkins, from 
Nannahubba Bluff, jsaddled down to Fort Stoddert, and by 



348 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

sunrise induced Captain Gaines to take the road with a file of 
mounted soldiers. They met Burr and a companion two miles 
from Hinson's, and made him prisoner without resistance at 
9 A. M. on February 19, 1807. 

He was kept in honorable captivity at the fort for over two 
weeks. He played chess with the wife of the commandant, 
who was a daughter of Judge Toulmin, and became very 
friendly with the captain's brother, George S. Gaines, the 
Indian factor, who gratified his curiosity as to the Choctaw 
Indians and frontier life. 

About March 5 Burr was rowed up the Alabama River to 
Lake Tensaw Boatyard, where he was committed to a guard 
of nine men under Colonel Perkins, who conducted him on 
horseback overland by the trail through the Creeks and other 
Indians to Georgia, and thence to Richmond. 

There he was tried under John Marshall, but finally acquit- 
ted. He became a wanderer on the face of the earth, until, in 
1836, he was at last laid to rest near his father at Princeton. 

The year before Burr's capture Hunts ville had begun, and 
about the same time the St. Stephens settlement commenced, 
although it was not until 1807 that commissioners under the 
act of the legislature laid off the latter town on the property of 
Edward Lewis, reserving for public use the land near Fort St. 
Stephen. There the land office for the district east of Pearl 
River was located under the act of 1808. Thomas W. Maury 
of Virginia was register, and Lemuel Henry receiver. In 
the summer of 1807 Harry Toulmin, James Caller, and Lem- 
uel Henry completed their duty under another act for opening 
the first road from Natchez to Fort Stoddert ; and in December 
notice was given in the "Mississippi Messenger" that the ferry 
was ready across the Alabama and Tombigbee just above Fort 
St. Stephen. This road had causeways over "boggy guts and 
branches," and from Natchez to Georgia was marked with 
three notches on the trees. 

David Holmes of Virginia succeeded the unpopular Governor 
Williams in 1809, and on December 21 of that year there was 
carved out of the southern part of Washington the county of 
Baldwin, named for the Georgian signer of the Declaration of 
Independence. The county seat was Mcintosh's Bluff. 

The Bigbee population increased rapidly after "the three- 



MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 349 

chopped way " was finished, and the settlements by 1810 had 
extended on both sides the river up to Mount Sterling. The 
lawyers were Nicholas Perkins, L. Henry, R. H. Gilmore, J. 
P. Kennedy, Samuel Acre, Salle, and Joseph Carson. The 
population of Washington County was about six thousand, 
many being recent settlers from the Carolinas, Georgia, and 
Tennessee. Even three years before, when the settlers were 
still principally old British colonists, the residents had been 
active in expressing at Wakefield their indignation at acts of 
Great Britain which were ultimately to bring on the War of 
1812. James Caller, the colonel, representative in the legis- 
lature and principal politician, was chairman, and Thomas 
Malone, long Gaines' assistant at the Trading House, was 
secretary of the meeting. This patriotic feeling was the more 
remarkable as they had not only to satisfy the United States 
customs duties at Fort Stoddert, where D. Darling was long col- 
lector after the resignation of Lieutenant Gaines, but on every- 
thing imjDorted or exported by the Mobile River, even to an- 
other American port, they had to pay the Spanish commandant 
at Mobile twelve and a half per cent, ad valorem in addition. 
Kentucky flour, which cost in Natchez four dollars a barrel, 
on the Bigbee sold for sixteen dollars. Even United States 
supplies for the Indian factories were stopped at Mobile and 
duty collected by Spain. In fact, the United States govern- 
ment in the fullest sense recognized Mobile as a Spanish port. ^ 

The S^Danish question was accentuated by the revolt of the 
Baton Rouge district from Spain in 1810. Governor Holmes 
took possession of it for the United States, and the Spanish 
flag disappeared from the Mississippi River. Among the 
leaders were the Kemper s, who had been cruelly treated by 
the Spaniards. The government was at first that of an inde- 
pendent republic, but the district ultimately became a part of 
the territory of Orleans, the present Loiiisiana. Mississippi 
Territory had to look for extension towards Mobile. 

Among those who came over the Creek road to Fort Stoddert, 
to be ready for that occupation when it occurred, were Miller 
and Hood, who intended establishing a newspaper at Mobile. 
They began "The Mobile Centinel" at Fort Stoddert on May 
23, 1811, at four dollars a year, and copies of several issues of 
^ 3 American State Papers, p. 220. 



350 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

this weekly have survived. The second number has four pages 
of four cohimns each. It contains some foreign news of the 
Peninsular War, and from the House of Commons, but is filled 
principally with articles and news regarding Spanish West 
Florida, whose acquisition Poindexter was advocating in Con- 
gress, although he had prosecuted Burr in Mississippi for 
attempting almost the same thing. ^ The first newspaper in 
Mississippi Territory had been "The Natchez Gazette," founded 
by Andrew Marschalk in 1802, but "The Centinel " was the 
first within the limits of what was to be Alabama. 

^ For an account of this newspaper, see the Mobile Register of July 3, 
1893. Two issues are now in the possession of Thomas M. Owen, Esq., 
of Birmingham, Ala. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

5. A \ 



IN THE BALANCE. 



■J> 



Spanish rule below EUicott's line was mild, and even Brit- ^ 
ish, we have seen, remained or came there to live. Of them 
Cornelius McCurtin was a full-blooded Irishman, but after he 
had had two successive Creole wives and acquired the Farmer 
plantation and Mobile real estate, he must have felt himself a 
good Spaniard. John Forbes we know, and also the brothers 
Innerarity. James married Louise Trouillet, and in his own 
or her name acquired lands. 

On the other hand, Americans were satisfied that the Union 
would eventually take possession under the Louisiana purchase, 
and from this and purposes of business a number, even from 
New England, gradually became inhabitants, and of necessity 
Spanish subjects. 

Lewis Judson came from Connecticut, and was in time pos- 
sibly the leading merchant, after the house of Forbes declined. 
The Hallett family are descendants of his sister. Peter H. 
Hobart was from Vermont, and married a Creole. In later 
years he wrote back to the north to explain that this did not 
mean she was not white. Hobart was the owner of a mill, and 
lived to be in American times a contractor and the builder of 
the first court-house. He was in the same epoch to buy our 
Spring Hill and make it a summer resort. Carolinians we 
have also. Dr. William E. Kennedy had the misfortune to 
kill Colonel Maxwell in South Carolina in 1797,^ and after 
acquittal removed to Spanish territory. We found him in 
1807 a Spanish subject, living in the old parsonage at Mobile. 
He invested in lands, and after his brother Joshua followed 
him to this section they became the greatest land-owners of 
them all. Samuel H. Garrow is said to have been a refugee 
to Virginia from San Domingo, and, while he was here a few 
days in Spanish times, he settled in Mobile only in 1813 upon 
1 Kennedy^s Exrs. v. Kennedy^s Heirs, 2 Ala. Rep. p. 583. 



352 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

the change of flag.^ The family are said to have been origi- 
nally of Toulon. Cyrus Sibley we find on the Tensaw by 1810. 

The oath of allegiance of Josiah Blakeley to the Spanish 
crown still exists in the archives at Mobile, bearing date July 
10, 1810. The paper recites that he had already lived four 
years in the district, and had since 1807 cultivated an island 
purchased from Don Jose Collins. He says that he had lived 
six years in Santiago de Cuba. 

We learn much of Blakeley, as well as of. the island bought 
of Hobart, Sossier, and Collins, from his long letter to rela- 
tives in Connecticut, recorded at Mobile.^ Omitting only some 
family references, not always intelligible now, he writes as 
follows : — 

" Mobile, 28th Feb., 1812. 

"My dear Abbt, — Your very pleasing, interesting [letter 
of] December 11 came to hand about the middle of February. 
Could you, my dear niece, know one half the pleasure it 
afforded me, you would willingly continue your interesting, 
pleasing correspondence. I love your dear mother very much. 
She knows I love her; but I have one complaint against her, 
— that she did not sooner inform me that I had so pretty a 
niece, who could write so pretty a letter. I thank you for 
being so particular. Ever was it to me a most consolatory 
reflection that my dear aged mother was with and under the 
sole care of your most amiable attentive mamma. . . . The 
unusual number of years added to the days of my dear mother's 
life does not lessen the sorrow of bidding her a last adieu. To 
me she had been an indulgent, kind, affectionate mother. She 
knew I loved her; with me her beloved memory will be dear 
and lasting. With your dear mamma and family, and with all 
weeping friends, do I most affectionately and most sincerely 
sympathize. . . . 

"Mobile, the great object of contention at this moment be- 
tween the United States and the Spaniards, contains about 90 
houses, all of wood and but one story high. At the south end 
of the town is a beautiful fort, built by the French and called 
Fort Charlotte. The town is about thirty miles north of the 

^ Kennedy v. Collins, U. S. Sup. Ct. printed record, p. 207. 
2 Mobile Records, Misc. Book « E," p. 467. 



IN THE BALANCE. 353 

Gulpli of Mexico, at the head of what is called Mobile Bay. 
This hay is from 10 to 20 miles wide. At the head of this bay, 
on the west side, stands the now famous town of Mobile. 
The river Mobile disembogues its waters into the bay by 
several mouths. From Mobile to the high land on the eastern 
shore is three leagues, in which are tliree rich islands, contain- 
ing about four thousand acres each. Better land for rice and 
cotton perhaps the world does not afford. These three valu- 
able islands are mine. The unfortunate dispute between the 
two nations has rendered it impossible for me to either sell or 
cultivate these lands. Were the^Americans here, their value 
would soon be known. Cattle and hogs do well upon them, 
and no expense. Upon them I have about 30 head of cattle 
and hundreds of hogs, the hogs wild. I shoot or catch them 
with a dog. On one of these islands I have a small house and 
plantation, called Festino. This year intend growing rice. I 
have also a large survey of land at the mouth of the river 
Pascagoula, 50 miles west of this. The Gazettes will from time 
to time inform you what takes place in this country. I have 
at my Festino plantation the orange, fig, quince, and peach; 
all do well. It is here too warm for apples. At Fort Stod- 
ert, 50 miles north of this, on the west bank of this Mobile 
River, is an American garrison of 500 or less troops. A little 
above Fort Stodert the Alabama from the northeast and the 
Tombigby from the north form a junction, as you may see 
from the map. They continue one stream to about a league 
south of the fort, then again separate, forming the Mobile 
River on the west and the Tensaw on the east. These chan- 
nels pass through a swamp or marsh about ten miles wide, very 
little of which is fit for cultivation. Below this marsh and 
above Mobile Bay are my islands, free of wood and proper for 
cultivation. They are one continued meadow farther than the 
eye can reach. Burn the grass and it is fit for the plough or hoe. 
Between this and Fort Stodert, on the west side, poor land; 
but few inhabitants, these French. In Mobile about 20 white 
families, those French, Spanish, Americans, and English. 
You can easily calculate my circle of acquaintance in Mobile 
is small. I am acquainted on both sides the river, for a hun- 
dred miles up, with all the best people. My room is directly 
opposite the Roman Catholic Church, the only one here, and 



354 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

in which I sometimes attend Mass, though no Catholic, I 
love to see religion attended to; it has a good effect on the 
conduct and morals of the jjeople. From this for 500 miles 
north, I do not believe there is a church or clergyman, the 
people almost savage. Land in general poor^ and but few 
inhabitants. Packet boats and other vessels are constantly 
running between this and Orleans; passage about three days. 
Orleans is southwest of this. That is a gay, lively place ; the 
young ladies there dance as well and dress with as much taste 
as any place I was ever in. You know if the French have 
money they will both dress and dance. But little attention 
appears to be paid to the improvement of the mind. Yet many 
of them make lively, pleasant companions. When I came to 
this place it was supposed the United States would soon be in 
possession. . . . By this long delay I have been disapj)ointed. 
At present my property here is almost unproductive. By the 
Gazette you will be informed of the state of this country. 
I long once more to visit the land of my nativity. I have 
not the pleasure of recollecting you, and suppose you do not 
recollect me. By a steady correspondence we can become 
better acquainted. My picture, which I hope is with your 
beloved mother, will inform you how I look; your mamma 
can inform you how 1 talk; my letter will how I write. . . . 
Several Yankees are here. One of the first merchants in this 
place is from Connecticut, not far from Stratford. His name 
is Judson, a good man. This market furnishes plenty of good 
oysters and fish, and during the winter the greatest plenty of 
wild geese, ducks, etc. Venison is plenty all the year, often 
for I dollar a quarter. . . . 

"My Festino plantation is about three miles from Mobile, 
where next month, March, I begin planting Rice. Rice gener- 
ally grows about as high as wheat ; on my island it grows six 
feet high. It also produces cotton superior to any other land 
in this country. But I have not negroes to cultivate it ; and as 
the situation of the country now is, I cannot sell planta- 
tions. . . . 

^'■Respect yourself^ and believe me your sincere friend, 

"J. Blakely." 

"During this last winter the United States army, which had 
long been wholly idle in this country, have made a road and 



IN THE BALANCE. 355 

bridges from Baton Rouge on the Mississippi to Fort Stoclart, 
also from Fort Stodart to the State of Georgia. I have seen 
many carriages which came from Savanah to Fort Stodart. 

"You may write me, and come all the way by land, and a 
good road. I inform your dear mamma, soon as the Ameri- 
cans have this country I believe I must beg permission to send 
for one of her daughters. 

" During this last winter we have had one snow two or three 
inches deep, some of which was on the ground for three days. 
We have had much cold weather this winter, several times ice 
half an inch thick ; though not so far north as Egypt we have 
it much colder. I think my islands are as rich as the Delta of 
the Nile, but they have one advantage : I can water them once 
in twenty-four hours, which for rice much increases their value. 
When the waters in the river above are raised forty feet, at my 
islands they do not rise one inch. They are last in this wild 
survey." 

There has been a question whether Josiah spelled his name 
"Blakeley," as Alabama later named his town, or "Blakely," 
as the United States confirmed his island title. On the idea 
that he, like Shakspere, knew best, we must decide for 
"Blakeley," despite this paper. For this is but a copy, and 
several original letters preserved in the Spanish archives have 
it uniformly with the "e." 

Although he had been so long in the Spanish dominions, we 
find Blakeley shortly before this (August, 1810) declaring in 
one of these papers that he was unacquainted with the lan- 
guage. This was in a proceeding that corresponds with our 
garnishment. Thomas Hutchins claimed that Thomas Drury 
owed him a thousand pesos, and that Blakeley was said to owe 
Drury something. Thereupon the commandant must have 
cited Blakeley, for that gentleman answers that he had be- 
friended Drury while sick and among strangers, and then 
shrewdly states an account for seven gallons best old Madeira 
at four dollars, and for use of a horse, negro, beef, etc., which 
more than balances the flour, pork, and beef, which Drury 
may have turned over to Blakeley's people in Mobile. 

Blakeley lived on the Polecat Bay side of his island, aljove 
Coffee Bayou. AYhen he bought from Collins in 1807, there 



356 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

was already an unfinislied dwelling on it, with a well-ditched 
plantation growing rice, corn, cotton, domestic grasses, and 
vegetables.^ 

Other Americans were less patient than Blakeley, and pre- 
ferred Burr's plan for solving the Spanish problem. The 
leaders of the Baton Rouge revolt, the Kempers, in 1810 
attempted to free Mobile also. 

No encouragement was accorded these filibusters. They 
made their descent at first down the Tensaw, where Dr. Thomas 
G. Holmes and a few other fiery spirits joined them. Near 
the site of Blakeley they made speeches and gesticvilated towards 
ancient Mobile, and even sent Cyrus Sibley over to demand 
its surrender by Folch. But whiskey and dissension ruined 
the expedition. Part of them crossed over to Sawmill Creek, 
twelve miles above Mobile, and while fiddling and dancing 
were betrayed by an old man. Two hundred soldiers were sent 
up in boats under Parades and captured the party.^ 

Moro Castle at Havana was to hold them prisoners for years 
to come, and Sibley's mill was operated by his faithful servant 
in the mean time. Even the United States officials disapproved 
the expedition, — probably because it was a failure, — and in 
November, 1811, Colonel Thomas H. Cushing, of the 2d in- 
fantry, was stationed with a considerable body of troops in the 
Orange Grove north of Mobile to protect the city against any 
other such attempt.^ Finally the troops marched back to found 
a new post at Mt. Vernon. 

1 See Appendix D, § 12. 

2 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 237. 

^ Information furnished by the War Department. 



CHAPTEK XLII. 

THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 

Spain assisted the United States to establish their independ- 
ence, but hardly realized what must be the result. Of all 
countries she had most to suffer from a strong American power, 
and in the case of our own country the danger to Spain was 
the greater because of the leavening influence of the new 
democratic institutions. 

There have been three times when our relations to Spain 
were unfriendly. The first was the period which we have now 
reached, when the natural expansion of the English colonies 
was to verify the prediction of Iberville, and they were to 
clamor for the occupation of those possessions which intervened 
between the west and the Gulf. The second time was when, in 
our own century, American principles induced the struggles of 
all her remaining continental provinces for independence, and 
sympathy and policy evoked the enunciation of that Monroe 
doctrine of American freedom from European interference 
which in our day is of so great importance. The third time 
was to come in the sympathy of the United States for Cubans 
in their uprisings, and in the strained relations with Spain 
which grow therefrom. 

Spain had accepted from France the gift of Louisiana with 
reluctance, but when she had taken possession she held to it 
with Spanish pertinacity. This was the more true when she 
recovered the Floridas from the British, and found herself 
again, as in the sixteenth century, with an unbroken coast line 
sweeping from Carolina all around the Gulf of Mexico. 

The interior of the country concerned her but little after De 
Soto found that it had no mines, and so her eighteenth century 
diplomats had not been careful to acquire the country up to 
the sources of the Gulf rivers. This had mattered little when 
only savages lived there, and the sea was a Spanish mare 
clausum. But conditions in 1812-13 were vastly different. 



A 



358 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

In 1812 the United States realized that patience had ceased 
to be a virtue, and found themselves at war with Great Britain. 
The British used not only such armies as they could spare from 
the contest with Napoleon, but by emissaries stirred up the 
Indians of the west and south. 

Spain aided the English indirectly by allowing use of the 
Gulf ports as points of distribution to the Indians and of ren- 
dezvous for British ships. This was not unnatural, as Eng- 
land was helping the Spanish in Europe iu their great revolt 
from Napoleon. But the United States could not permit it, 
especially as to Mobile, which they had always claimed as their 
own under the Louisiana purchase. President Madison, under 
act of Congress in the spring of 1813, directed General Wil- 
kinson, commanding at New Orleans, to take possession of 
Mobile. 

This order was signed by John Armstrong, Secretary of 
War, and is dated February 16. It was, of course, not re- 
ceived for some weeks, but Wilkinson then lost no time in 
getting ready. He took with him seven companies of the 
second and third regiments infantry and one of artillery. 

He had had many unexpected delays and cross accidents, he 
reports from Pass Christian, one of them having nearly brought 
him to "the unprofessional end of death by drowning instead 
of shooting." He had expected to find at the Pass three gun- 
boats, which he wished to send to take possession of Mobile 
Bay and guard the pass to town. But they were gone. One 
gunboat which he had was grounded, and he had to leave his 
baggage in it; and another "crazy" one that he would use was 
for the time out of communication on account of a gale. So 
he intended waiting for Commodore Shaw to bring two from 
Bayou St. John. That morning he had dispatched a small 
vessel with a three-pounder and about twenty men to get into 
Mobile Bay and prevent all intercourse with Pensacola by sea, 
at the same time that troops descended from Fort Stoddert, 
and, by fortifying opposite the town, prevented communication 
by land. 

The plan succeeded admirably. The Spanish troops on 
Dauphine Island were compelled to retire ; vessels were inter- 
cepted; and the first intimation which Don Mauricio Zuniga, 
the governor at Pensacola, had of any hostile intention of the 



THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 359 

Americans was on April 12, when tlie Daupliine Island detach- 
ment presented themselves before him. He wrote such a letter 
of mingled surprise and deferential consideration as only a 
Spaniard could indite. It was handed Wilkinson by Bernard 
Prieto at Mobile on the 15th. 

The American general landed below Mobile with six hun- 
dred men. Colonel Bowyer descended the Tensaw with troops, 
and, with five brass cannon, took a position opposite the city, 
while Shaw's gunboats held the bay. Cayetano Perez had 
sixty men, with sixty-two cannon and munitions, in Fort Char- 
lotte, but no provisions. So unequal the contest ! 

Wilkinson later wrote the Secretary of War that it was some- 
what difficult to give an amicable aspect to the investiture of a 
military post, but that he made the attempt. Thus he wrote 
to Perez on April 12 from camp near Mobile : — 

"The troops of the United States under my command do not 
approach you as the enemies of Spain, but by order of the 
President they come to relieve the garrison which you com- 
mand from the occupancy of a post within the legitimate limits 
of those States. I therefore hope, sir, that you may peacefully 
retire from Fort Charlotte, and from the bounds of the Missis- 
sippi Territory [and proceed] east of the Perdido River, with 
the garrison you command, and the public and private property 
which may appertain thereto." 

The reply of the Spanish commandant was made from the 
fort the same day, as follows : — 

" Excellent Sie, — I have just received by your Aid-de- 
Camp, Major H. D. Peire, your intimation, and to comply 
with my duty I cannot do less than protest against it, and pro- 
pose that, provided you permit me to withdraw from the Fort 
everything which is in it belonging to his C. M., and that the 
troops, ofS.cers, and those employed by government carry out 
their equipage and property, and also that the inhabitants be 
allowed to keep their possessions as they did heretofore, and 
that you furnish me with transports, I will evacuate it, and 
the garrison will leave it and go to Pensacola without spilling 
blood; and leaving the decision respecting the Territory to 
both nations, not having myself faculty to do it. 

"God grant you many years." 

The articles as finally settled were as follows : — 



360 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

"Agreement entered into on this 13th day of April, 1813, 
between Major-General James Wilkinson, commanding 
the forces of the United States of America, and Captain 
Cayetano Perez, commanding the Spanish garrison of Fort 
Car lota and the post of Mobile. 

"Art. 1st. Captain Perez proposes to evacuate the Fort on 
the 15th inst. 

"Agreed, for the hour of 5 o'clock p. M., but a detachment of 
the troops of the United States shall tak« post in the vicinity 
of the Fort to occupy it in the moment of its evacuation. 

"2nd. The Spanish garrison being destitute of provisions, 
a supply is requested, together with transports to convey the 
troops to Pensacola. 

"Agreed. But the Spanish government shall be accountable 
to the United States for the expense ; the vessels to sail as flags 
of truce, and to be guaranteed by the government of Spain 
against capture, and also against port charges and pilotage: 
Major-General Wilkinson engages on the part of the United 
States to guarantee the safe passage of the Spanish garrison 
against the vessels of those States and the powers of peace with 
them. 

"3rd. Captain Perez proposes that the cannon, its attirail 
and the munitions of war belonging to it, actually in Fort 
Charlotte, shall be embarked with the troops, or, should this 
proposition be rejected, an officer shall be appointed by the 
Spanish commandant to meet an officer of equal rank of the 
American forces to take an inventory of the Artillery and 
mvinitions of war, for which, the American officer shall give 
receipts obligatory on the American government to account for 
the same to the Spanish government. 

"The first proposition being rejected, the alternative is 
acceded to, and Major-General Wilkinson will see it carried 
into effect. 

"4th. That, until the Spanish garrison has sailed, the 
American troops shall not approach the Fort. 

"Agreed, under the stipulation of the first article, that pre- 
caution being necessary to the safety of the public property. 

"5th. That an officer of Artillery and a quartermaster of 
the Spanish garrison be permitted to remain, to deliver the 
artillery and munitions of war appurtenant thereto, and to 



THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 361 

settle the accounts of the garrison, under a guarantee of safety 
against the molestation of persons, papers, or property. 

"Agreed, until the objects of their respective duties shall 
be accomplished. 

"Mobile, Fort Charlotte, April 13, 1813. 

"Hekry D. Peire, Major of Louisiana Volunteers, Aid-de- 
Camp to Major-General Wilkinson, being duly authorized. 

"Cayetano Perez." 

"Additional Article. The contracting parties agree that 
Lieutenant Sands of the first regiment of artillery on the part 
of the United States, and Lieutenant Don Juan Estevez on the 
part of the Spanish government, shall meet, examine, and form 
inventories of the artillery and munitions of war which may 
be left in Fort Charlotte by the Sj)anish garrison, for which 
the said Lieutenant Sands shall give duplicate receipts, agree- 
ably to the third Article." 

The evacuation took place, under the forms prescribed by 
Wilkinson in the general order of April 15. "The Spanish 
garrison," he says, "will evacuate, and the troops of the United 
States take possession of Fort Charlotte this evening, or to- 
morrow morning. A detachment consisting of Captain Walsh, 
Artillerist, and Butler's and Laurence's companies under the 
command of Major Carson, will enter the place the moment the 
rear of the Spanish troops have passed the Glacis. This 
detachment is to be formed in front of the Fort, the Artil- 
lerist with lighted matches and twenty-four rounds of blank 
cartridges. The troops will be under arms at four o'clock, and 
on the discharge of the cannon will march to town and take 
such position as may be hereafter ordered. On taking posses- 
sion of the Fort, the standard is to be hoisted and a national 
salute fired from the batteries, to be followed by a similar 
salute from the navy, after which the troops will be marched 
back to camp. A guard of fifty men properly officered is to 
be mounted into Fort Charlotte, and the call of all is well is 
to be repeated by the sentinels every hour, beginning at the 
guard-house and passing to the right. The contractor must be 
prepared immediately to issue fresh provisions to the troops 
three times a week. 

"The General recommends to the commanding officers of 
battalions and detachments to make the exchangee of flour 



362 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

for bread on the best terms for the troops which may be prac- 
tical." 

The American troops had an unexpected accession at Fort 
Charlotte in the form of a body of Mobile volunteers. Speak- 
ino- of them with the rest of his "little corps," Wilkinson 
writes the Secretary of War he believes that, whenever put to 
test, they will prove themselves worthy the name of Americans, 
and a match for equal numbers taken from the best troops in 
V the world. 

In the same report he says: "As soon as I have looked about 
me, I shall make the best disposition of my puny force to 
defend the country and assert our jurisdiction to the Perdido ; 
but, sir, it should be remembered that I am placed in a peril- 
ous situation, with the ocean in my front, the Creek nation in 
my rear, the Choctaws on my right, and the Seminoles on my 
left. The enclosed will give you my effective strength, and I 
can expect no succor, but by the abandonment of New Orleans, 
from any quarter nearer than Tennessee or Georgia : it follows 
that, shoidd we be attacked in force and with decision by land 
and water, the country must be lost; for two thousand men 
and fifteen heavy gunboats would be necessary to resist such 
an attack successfully. These observations are made from a 
respect to candor, to justice, and our relative stations, and 
will, I have no doubt, be received with the spirit in which they 
are offered; yet you may calculate with confidence on what- 
ever my most active exertions and best judgment can effect 
with the means I command." 

The first of the garrison orders after occupation, which has 
been preserved, was for April 17, and reads as follows: — 

"The guard will, until further orders, consist of one Subal- 
tern, one Sergeant, one Corporal, and twenty -four Pi-ivates. 
In future the vault nearest the flagstaff must be made use of 
by the soldiers and no other, the door of which must be shut 
either on going in or coming out. One Sergeant, one Cor- 
poral, and thirty Privates will be immediately detailed for 
fatigue after troops this morning. The Sergeant detailed for 
this duty will report to the Commanding Officer. 

"The Acting Adjutant will cause tlie water call to beat four 
or five times per day, at which call eight or ten men of a 
company can go out for water accompanied by a N. C. Officer. 



THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 363 

No soldier is permitted to go into town witliout a written pass 
from the commanding officer of lais Company (waiters ex- 
cepted), and not more than five men at one time can go ; they 
must also be accompanied by an N. C.^ Officer. The men 
going to town must be in uniform. 

"W. Caeson, Major Commanding," 

On the 20th, General Wilkinson was able to sail for the 
mouth of the bay to look into establishing a fort. This was 
actually begun on Mobile Point, and named for the gallant 
Colonel John Bowyer. The general also marched over to the 
Perdido and began the construction of a "compact strong 
work " there to repulse any predatory attack. 

Thus Mobile was captured without "the effusion of a drop 
of blood," as Wilkinson expressed it, and the occupation of 
the United States extended to the Perdido Eiver, — the boun- 
dary which they had always claimed under the Louisiana pur- 
chase. The stars and stripes now waved from Fort Stoddert 
to Mobile, from Fort Charlotte to Fort Bowyer. Mississippi 
Territory had reached the Gulf. 

^ The capitalization, etc., in this, as in most other documents cited, is 
that of the original. " C. M." stands for " Catholic Majesty," and "N. C," 
of course, for " non-commissioned." As to Fort " Stoddert," it may be 
remarked that this is the official spelling. 



PART VI. 
AMERICANIZATION. 

1813-1821. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE CREEK WAR. 

With the capture of Mobile, the United States acquired, on 
all but the Florida side, what Lord Beaconsfield would have 
called a "scientific frontier." The Tombigbee residents had 
not only an outlet to the Gulf, but a new district to settle. 

Even before the capture of the city, the governor's proclama- 
tion had laid off Mobile County. By act of December 18, 
1812, all south of the thirty-first degree, from the Perdido to 
the ridge between the Mobile and Pascagoula rivers, was to 
bear that name, and all west to Biloxi was named Jackson 
County. Mobile was to gain at the expense of Jackson when 
Mississippi Territory was divided,^ and was also to grow north- 
wardly, although until only a few years ago its north boundary 
was the irregular line of the old Federal Road.^ 

The new country had an immediate influx of Americans, 
while not a few of the Spaniards left for Pensacola, which was 
to remain under Spain for a few years longer, or went to Cuba, 
the ever-faithful isle. Cayetano Perez returned to Mobile and 
lived on the bay near Dog River. One cannot but think, 
from the language used of him by Manrique next year, that he 
had found Pensacola an unpleasant abode, for that governor 
told the Indians in a letter found at the Holy Ground that 
Mobile had been sold to the Americans by a faithless officer.^ 
The early records of Washington County, too, contain the 
names of not a few Spaniards. 

George S. Gaines was at Mobile for a while, but Judge 
Toulmin preferred his grant and home near Fort Stoddert. 
Another familiar character to us, Sam Dale, was often at 

1 Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, pp. 83, 84. 

2 Alabama Acts 1828-29, p. 44. 

* 2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p, 411 ; Mobile Deed Book " A," 
p. 103. 



368 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Mobile, but his regular business was that of guide for the 
immigrants from Georgia to the Bigbee settlements. 

Big Sam, Sam Thlucco, as the Indians called him, was sans 
peur et sans reproche, the Daniel Boone of the Gulf region. 
Early an orphan, the Virginia boy paid off his father's debts 
and cared for the large family. He was brought up on the 
border, and learned to know the wiles of the Indians, but not 
less to love the generous qualities of his savage foes. Tecum- 
seh he heard at Tookabatcha, and the character of Pushmataha 
he draws with a loving hand.^ For Dale, like Caesar, could 
write as well as fight, and his autobiography, edited by the son 
of General Claiborne, has a place of its own in southwestern 
literature. 

There was need of his gun rather than his pen. The Ameri- 
cans were threatened with a greater danger than the Spanish 
custom-house. The Creek nation, instigated by the British, 
were in arms, pledged to exterminate the white man from their 
hunting-grounds. The building of the much used Federal 
Road in 1811, by consent of some chiefs, had aroused the rest 
under the very eyes of United States agent Hawkins. The 
impassioned eloquence of Tecumseh at Creek Tookabatcha in 
the fall of 1811 or spring of 1812, ^ followed by the intrigues 
of his emissaries the prophets, raised a war spirit before which 
the friendly Indians had to flee. The Creeks even conferred 
with the Choctaws at Pushmataha (in the present Choctaw 
County, Alabama) in July, 1813, in an endeavor to win them 
to war with the whites, and Tecumseh had visited them before 
going to the Creeks. 

Occasional murders and outrages alarmed the settlers on the 
rivers, among them the abduction of Mrs. Crawley, rescued 
by the brave Tandy Walker from the Creek settlement at 
the falls of the Black Warrior and brought to St. Stephens. 
While Fort Stoddert and Mount Vernon were occupied in 
July, 1813, by regulars under General F. L. Claiborne (bro- 
ther of the late governor), a line of improvised posts extended 
across the neck of Clarke County from river to river. Fort 
Republic was built even in the St. Stephens settlement. A 
man's house was literally his castle, and many places were 

^ Claiborne's Sam Dale, pp. 32, 59, 135 n. 

2 Meek's Southwest, p. 242 ; Halbert and Ball's Creek War, pp. 63, 120. 



THE CREEK WAR. 369 

stockaded and became neighborhood resorts. The Bigbee and 
Tensaw plantations were deserted. White's Fort, Fort Sinque- 
field, besides Fort Madison and others in the fork, and Fort 
Mims by the Tensaw Boatyard, were filled with refugees. 
Captain Schaumburgh had once at Fort Stoddert to improvise 
marriage ceremonies for a parsonless people, but this time was 
over. Dale's occupation as guide to immigrants was gone, 
and young Jerry Austill now made his perilous night ride as 
messenger between Fort Madison and Mount Vernon. Pierce's 
school and the Pierce gin at the Tensaw Boatyard were no 
longer in ojjeration, and the newer cotton-gin at Mcintosh's 
Bluff had also ceased. 

Colonel Caller, of the militia, heard that some Creeks under 
Peter McQueen had gone to Pensacola for munitions, and he 
raised a party of one hundred and eighty mounted men to 
intercept them. This was done at Burnt Corn on July 27, but 
greed for spoil broke up discipline and the successful attack 
became a defeat. It was even worse, because it destroyed the 
white prestige. The capture of Mobile was forgotten in the 
rout at Burnt Corn, and Indian depredation became more 
marked. 

Wilkinson had been called to the north to command on the 
Canadian border, and he was succeeded at Mobile and New 
Orleans by General Flournoy. This commander was misled by 
the reports of Hawkins at Tookabatcha, — who was perfectly 
honest, but hardly appreciated the extent of the outbreak, — 
and ordered Claiborne to confine himself to the protection of 
Mobile. 

It was at noon on the 30th of August, while dancing was 
going on, and a negro "^as about to be whipped for giving what 
was deemed a false alarm of Indians coming, that McQueen 
and Weatherford and their thousand savages dashed through 
the open gate of the palisade surrounding the house of Samuel 
Mims on the Tensaw. Major Beasley redeemed his careless- 
ness by dying sword in hand, and the noble half-breed Dixon 
Bailey bravely led on the whites in defense of the women and 
children. But the odds were too great, and at last fire aided 
the butchery by the savages. Even Bailey was mortally 
wounded, and hardly two dozen escaped of the five hundred 
and fifty men, women, and children in that stockaded acre of 



370 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

ground. God's acre it was, for, when a relief corps came, it 
was only to find ashes, and mangled and burning dead. Neigh- 
boring Fort Pierce was abandoned during that battle and 
Lieutenant Montgomery led its people to Mobile ; while, 
among other fugitives from Fort Mims, David Tate and some 
of his family escaped with the two Pierces on a flatboat down 
to Fort Stoddert.i 

The pits that received the victims of Fort Mims are now 
level with the ground, and only a practiced eye can detect any 
traces of the rude fort. But that massacre still lives in history, 
and "Remember Fort Mims!" was the battle-cry that nerved 
American armies from the west, east, and north to blot the 
very Creek country from the map. It was the blood of gray- 
headed Sam Mims crying from the ground, and his spirit lead- 
ing on, that opened the interior of Alabama to civilization. 

George S. Gaines received details the next day, and he sent 
Edmondson express through the Choctaws and Cherokees to 
Nashville to ask Andrew Jackson to invade the Creek country 
with his brigade of mounted volunteers. The general required 
little urging from Governor Blount to take the field, and sent 
McKee to "get out " the friendly Choctaws. Gaines met McKee 
at Pitchlyn's as he was on the same errand. Pushmataha had 
learned of the massacre through Edmondson, and went with 
Gaines to Mobile. Claiborne won the heart of the Choctaw 
chief by giving him a full suit of United States brigadier 
regimentals, noted as purchased at Mobile for three hundred 
dollars.^ At first Flournoy refused the assistance of the 
Choctaws, nobly tendered at his quarters in Fort Charlotte 
by that chief in September, 1813, but, realizing his mistake, 
sent an express and accepted it,^ just as George S. Gaines 
had reached St. Stephens with Pushmataha and their dispir- 
iting news. At Flournoy's request Gaines, accompanied by 
Flood McGrew, attended the council called by Pushmataha 
near Quitman, and the result was the enlistment of many Choc- 
taws. 

A brilliant episode of the bloody war which followed was on 

1 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 284 ; family tradition related by T. T. Tunstall, 
Tate's grandson ; Halbert and Ball's Creek War, p. 157. 

2 Claiborne's Sam Dale, p. 133. 

^ 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 290 ; Gaines in Mobile Register. 



THE CREEK WAR. 371 

the Alabama River, just above Randon's Creek. On November 
12, Sam Dale, Jeremiah Aiistill, James Smith, and a negro, 
Caesar, while on a scouting expedition, deliberately paddled 
out in a canoe, and engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with 
nine Indians. Austill was knocked down and all but killed, 
but one by one they dispatched the warriors and threw them 
over into the river. ^ 

But this, like McKee's burning of the deserted Creek village 
at Tuskaloosa, like the lamented death of McGrew in a skir- 
mish, was only an episode. Andrew Jackson, fired by the news 
of the Fort Mims butchery, on October 13 left Nashville, and 
with Tennessee volunteers marched for Huntsville and the 
Creek country. Joined by Cherokees and friendly Creeks, he 
captured Tallesehatche, founded Fort Strother, and on Novem- 
ber 9 won the battle of Talladega. Perry's victories on Lake 
Erie and the death of Tecumseh at the north had their counter- 
part in Jackson's campaign at the south. 

From the east, too, the Georgians under Floyd defeated the 
Creeks at Autose, but had to retire from lack of provisions. 
General Claiborne fortunately construed the "defence of Mo- 
bile " broadly, and in November, 1813, from the west he also 
marched into the enemy's territory. Above the site of the 
Canoe Fight, Fort Claiborne at Weatherford's Bluff was built 
as a base of supplies, and his square fort can still be traced on 
the bluff of the Alabama River at Claiborne. His objective 
point was Econachaca, the Holy Ground, on a bluff of the 
Alabama in what is now Lowndes County. It had been built 
by Weatherford as a place of safety, where plunder was secured 
and white prisoners burned. Impregnable, the prophets said, 
but Claiborne stormed it on December 23, and drove into the 
water those savages who were not killed outright, for there 
was little quarter in this war. Weatherford himself fled, and 
with characteristic daring leaped his gray horse Arrow over 
into the river. The town was burned to the ground, after the 
army reserved some supplies and the plunder had been turned 
over to Pushmataha. 

The term of the Mississippi volunteers being out, the army 
had soon to disband, and the glory of terminating the war was 

1 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 312 ; Claiborne's Sam Dale, p. 123 ; Halbert 
and Ball's Creek War, pp. 233, 200. 



372 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

left for General Jackson and tlie Tennessee soldiers. The 
Creek country had been invaded, burned, and devastated from 
the north, east, and west, and on Jackson's advance the sav- 
ages were defeated at Emuckfau and in other battles. Finally, 
on March 27, they were found, twelve hundred in number, 
concentrated in the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa Kiver. 
Jackson attacked the isthmus in front, after Coffee and the 
Cherokees had crossed the river to cut the foe off from the 
rear. The Creeks fought as bravely as ever, but hardly two 
hundred escaped alive. Some saved themselves by such strat- 
agems as that of the wounded Manowa, who staid under water 
until night, breathing through a cane. The Americans lost 
comparatively few, among them, however, being the brave 
Major Lemuel Purnell Montgomery, the first man killed on 
the breastworks. For him, whom Jackson called "the flower 
of his army," the county containing the present capital was 
named. The dead were sunk by Jackson in the river to pre- 
vent mutilation by the Indians.^ 

The Americans soon found themselves resting on the site 
of Bienville's Fort Toulovise. The old French trenches were 
cleaned out, a stockade and blockhouse built, and the place 
re-christened Fort Jackson. It was, a few months later, the 
scene of the surrender of the brave Weathei'ford, whom the 
general could hardly protect from the infuriated Americans. 
The two men lived to be afterwards strong personal friends. 

Jackson marched his troops back to Tennessee, but, being 
promoted to the rank of major-general and to command of the 
southern army, he was again at Fort Jackson on August 9 to 
conclude a treaty of peace with the defeated Creeks. By this 
all their country was surrendered to the United States except 
the part east of the Coosa River and of a line drawn southeast- 
wardly from Fort Jackson. 

The great Creek war, which had threatened the very exist- 
ence of the Americans on the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers, 
thus resulted in opening up to them the woods and prairies of 
the most fertile part of the future State of Alabama. The 
sites of Forts Tombecbe and Toulouse were no longer isolated, 
1 2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p. 421. 



THE CREEK WAR. 373 

but within territory acquired by the whites, and soon to be 
well settled.^ 

' At least one survivor of Fort Mims, McGirth by name, was on the 
Mobile wharf to be reunited to the family which he thought killed at Fort 
Mims, but who, as he learned to his joy, had been rescued by an Indian of 
the attacking force, whom years before McGirth had adopted and raised 
with his own children. Pushmataha, the most eloquent man of his day, 
was to be tried by a Mississippi court and condemned to death for punishing 
capitally a refractory member of his tribe, but was to live and visit Wash- 
ington. He died there, burned out with strong drink, it is said, and through 
Senator Jackson's influence there were fired over his grave in the Congres- 
sional Cemetery the " big guns " he loved so well, Sam Dale was to dine 
familiarly with President Jackson in the White House, and also feel the 
hand of civil law in an arrest for debt in Cidlum's Hotel at Mobile, from 
which generous citizens at once released him by paying oflf the claim. Dale 
was to be praised and pensioned by the legislature of Alabama and have a 
county named for him, and his services and supplies paid for by the United 
States at last. Austill was long in business at Mobile, much loved. 
Weatherford lived and died at Little River, in Baldwin County, where his 
descendants still survive, and in Mobile yet are Tunstalls who are proud of 
their kinship to him. 

Fort Jackson is now almost ploughed up, and the same insatiate weapon 
of peace was gradually demolishing its cemetery, where lay Strother, 
Machesney, and others ; but on my calling the attention of the War Depart- 
ment to its neglected condition, the remains were transferred to the National 
Cemetery at Mobile in January, 1897. 

See 2 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 281, 318 ; Davis' Recollections of Mississippi, 
p. 59 ; Claiborne's Dale, p. 135, n. ; Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, pp. 607, 
608; 6 U. S. Statutes at Large, pp. 322, 503. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

FORT BOWYER. 

The Indian war was over, but the Spaniards still claimed 
Mobile, dissuading the Indians on that account from burning 
it,i and an English fleet was threatening the coast. Jackson 
was promoted to the command of the southwest, and in August, 
1814, floated down the Alabama. 

Jackson apparently took with him the five companies of the 
3d regulars, five hundred strong, leaving Colonel P. Pippen at 
Fort Jackson with Tennessee militia. On the same boat with 
the commander and his staff went Major Ho. Tatum, of Nash- 
ville, summoned by Jackson to act as topographical engineer. 
To him we are indebted for a fidl survey of the Alabama 
River, noting distances, courses, and natural features, the more 
interesting as it is the first known. ^ 

He mentions Coosawda Town as having been on a high bluff 
to the right as they descended. It had been burned by Colo- 
nel Gibson during the war. Taw-wassee Town he identifies 
on the second day (August 12) as Weatherford's Bluff, lower 
down on the left, and then on the right, Autauga on a red 
bluff near an unnamed creek. They proceeded only by day, 
and thus the observations of Tatum are very full. After 
noting other bluffs, forests, and windings, on the 13th they 
passed the Holy Ground, a high bluff forty chains long, on the 
left, where a prophet had lived before the attack, and next 
day Durant's extensive place on both sides of the river. On 
the 15th, the troops landed and took of the corn growing on 
the right, destroying what they did not need, opposite where 
Colonel Pearson, of the North Carolina militia, had encamped 
during the Indian war. Some distance below he describes a 

1 2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p. 411, n. 

2 This report is in MS., and is in the possession of Mr. Louis Stein, of 
Mobile. 



FORT BOWYER. 375 

high red bluff to the right as the handsomest situation on the 
river for a town. On the next day he mentions only the 
usual landmarks, and on the 17th an island, noted as the place 
where Colonel Benton, in May or June, had let three or four 
hundred Indians escape. These told him they were on their 
way to Fort Claiborne to surrender, but afterwards turned up 
in Pensacola under Francis McQueen. 

They landed at John Weatherford's ferry on the left, near 
Fort Claiborne, at four p. M., and Jackson seems to have staid 
at the fort until after ten the next morning. The ferry was 
on the road from Fort St. Stephens to Milledgeville, and, 
despite his being brother to the famous William Weatherford, 
its owner was a friendly Indian. Fort Claiborne was on a 
bluff called the Alabama Heights, one hundred and fifty feet 
in perpendicular. The fort he describes as a strong stockade, 
nearly square, apparently with blockhouses in three corners, so 
shaped as to have the effect of bastions in defence. There was 
also a blockhouse at an irregular offset made to avoid includ- 
ing part of a ravine. 

After leaving, he mentions Weatherford's improvement on 
the left at the ferry, then Jones' on the right; next, but some 
distance below, those of the friendly half-breed Peter Randon 
on both sides of the river, and on the right, further down, 
unprovements of the brave Dixon Bailey. On the 19th, they 
passed other improvements, — on the left that of Sizemore, a 
white man who married Bailey's sister, then on the right the 
plantation of the half-breed Mrs. Dyer, also a small improve- 
ment on handsome Choctaw Bluff, and those of the friendly 
haff-breed Sam Manac on both sides, a mile below Little 
River. Among other plantations he also names one of David 
Tait, whom he seems to think only pretended friendship with 
the whites during the war so as to cover his own property and 
that of his half-brother, William Weatherford. The Creek 
boundary crossed the Alabama at the Cut-off, and there the 
observations of Major Tatum ceased, as Jackson determined 
now to press forward at night also. There was the less need 
for a survey, he says, as Major-Genei-al Gaines had already 
reported on the river from there to Mobile. 

Tatum was much pleased with the country he saw, and says 
the Alabama "can be navigated with large keel-boats with 



376 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

tolerable ease and expedition from the time the fall rains set 
in until about the months of May or June, after which they 
become low and are much incommoded, both in ascending and 
descending, by a variety of shoals." Of the "Cau-hau-ba" 
River, also, he speaks in glowing terms, pictured to him as it 
was by officers who had scoured that country, as the "Acadia 
of America." 

On the Cut-off at Mims' Ferry was Peter Randon's large 
and valuable plantation. The ferry-house stood on the left 
bank at a small lagoon, and three miles below was the mouth 
of a small lake leading up to Pierce's Boatyard, in sight of 
Fort Mims. 

They encamped fourteen miles above Fort "Stoddard," and 
upon his arrival on August 20 Jackson proceeded to Mount 
Vernon, where Major Blue commanded part of the 39th regi- 
ment. Lieutenant-Colonel Benton had but shortly before 
marched the rest to Holmes' Hill, two miles from Fort Mims, 
and was building Fort Montgomery to stop the marauding 
Indians on the east of the rivers. The next day Jackson pro- 
ceeded, but had to encamp four miles above Mobile on account 
of a gale, and did not reach town until nine A. M. next day. 
It would be a pity, however, not to believe the tradition which 
makes one of his night stops to have been at the hovise of the 
widow Andry, — for Simon was dead. He declined a bed, for, 
"Madame, I am a soldier still," but on reembarking next 
morning had the misfortune to lose his sword in the river. 
There, despite earnest search, it still lies, below Seymour's 
Blufe. 

Fort Charlotte he found commanded by Colonel Richard 
Sparks, of the 2d regiment, with five companies of that regi- 
ment and a detachment of artillery under Lieutenant A. L. 
Sands. Provisions about that time were good and ammuni- 
tion abundant, but the fort was in bad order from lack of 
means to carry out Lafon's plans for repairs, and a valuable 
park of artillery purchased from the French was going to ruin 
for lack of plank to shelter it. The soldiers were covered at 
their own expense, and claimed back clothing for a year or 
more. 

The hospital and bake-house were not serviceable, and the 
frame barracks within the fort gone beyond repair. The men 



FORT BOWYER. 377 

were then quartered in town, but the officers seem to have been 
in tents within the fort.^ 

There were a great many cattle east of the bay, the property 
of Mobilians, and Indians, more than suspected to be sent 
out from Pensacola, committed depredations. A place be- 
longing to Dolive, for one, was plundered, and overseer and 
slaves carried off. Jackson met this by sending out parties of 
soldiers and Choctaws from Mobile and Fort Montgomery, 
and when a Baratarian pirate brig, prize to the British brig 
Sophia, foundered on Dauphine Island, Jackson notified the 
Spanish governor that he would keep the crew (consisting of 
prize-master, six British and three Spanish sailors) as hos- 
tages. He received about this time an amicable embassy from 
that governor in the person of a Lieutenant Gilmar, and suf- 
fered him to depart ; but events at the mouth of the bay 
prevented the lieutenant from reaching Pensacola. 

With Colonel Sparks and Captain Thomas L. Butler, 
Jackson looked about him, and in everything had to rely 
upon his own resources; for Washington had been burned by 
the British, and the government was migratory in these days. 

The general is said to have lived at the southwest corner 
of Conti and Conception streets, — appropriately opposite the 
site of the Indian House of former days. The old low, white- 
washed building will be remembered as only recently destroyed 
to make way for pleasant modern residences. Another tradi- 
tion, however, makes Jackson's headquarters to have been a 
log cabin where the Battle House billiard-saloon now stands. 
George S. Gaines had occasion to visit him, and found him on 
the piazza reading. The town, it is said, had altogether but 
one hundred and fifty houses. The fort could not hold all of 
his troops. They are said to have been encamped near our 
Frascati. He was not idle at Mobile, and his reconnoitring 
around the town is said to be commemorated by the name of 
a village over Three Mile Creek. Tradition says that he dined 
in the woods there, and the tree which shaded him was long 
pointed out. Certain It is, the place was named Jacksonville 
in his honor. 

1 Report of Assistant Inspector-General Daniel Hughes in War Depart- 
ment files. Much information has also been derived from the Tatum report 
above mentioned. 



378 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

The British fleet in the Gulf portended an attack somewhere, 
and so even more important than Fort Charlotte was the new 
fort which guarded the entrance to the bay. If their aim was 
to capture Mobile, the defence must be on Mobile Point. 

Fort Bowyer had been begun by Wilkinson, and from there, 
on September 14, 1813, Bowyer had reported that the British 
were arming Creeks at Pensacola. Its bricks are said to have 
been furnished by Major Montgomery from HoUinger's Island, 
possibly near the old Rochon home. Cannon were mounted in 
May, 1814, but shortly afterwards the post was dismantled, 
and Bowyer and his command withdrawn to Mobile. 

Why this should have been done in a war with a great naval 
power is not easy to understand, particularly as the site was 
healthy, and water and wood abundant. Jackson set about 
reoccupying it, however, and threw Lieutenant-Colonel Law- 
rence into it with one hundred and thirty men. 

Like Fort Charlotte, it had a glacis which all but concealed 
it, although here there was no covered way, and in shape it 
was different. It was near the west end of Mobile Point, 
and on the sea exposure was round, in fact a semicircular 
battery, which was connected by curtains with a bastion which 
faced the land approach. Inside, it was one hundred and 
eighty feet from the summit of the bastion to the parapet of 
the battery, whose arc described a chord of two hundred feet. 
The parapet of the semicircular battery was fifteen feet thick, 
while the parapet elsewhere above the platform was three 
feet. The interior front was of pine, but there were no case- 
mates. The fosse was twenty feet wide, but the redoubt was 
unfortunately commanded by sand mounds two or three hun- 
dred yards away. 

The artillery consisted of twenty pieces, all but the few 
twenty-four and twelve pounders being mounted on Spanish 
carriages of little value. In the bastion were only one nine- 
pounder and three four-pounders. 

The first attack was in September, 1814. On the 12th, four 
large vessels were descried in the offing, and on the next day 
there were several attempts by the British to throw up in- 
trenchments on the land side, but the cannon of the fort dis- 
persed them. Two days later, however, came the sea attack. 
The garrison took an oath not to surrender unless in extremity. 



FORT BOWYER. 379 

adopting a motto not unlike the other Lawrence's on the ship 
— "Don't give up the fort! " 

The Hermes, of twenty-eight guns, under Commodore Percy, 
led the attack at 2 p. M., and by 4.30 she anchored within the 
bay, and the action became general. A battery was erected 
by Woodbine about seven hundred yards southeast of the fort, 
but this was soon silenced, and the battle was between the fort 
and ships. At 5.30 the flag of the Hermes was cut down, and 
Lawrence chivalrously ceased firing until it could be replaced. 
The next brig answered the courtesy by a broadside, and then 
came a reply from all the fort at once. The flag of the fort 
also fell, but the guns of the British did not pause. It was 
quickly secured to a sponge staff, however, and gallantly 
restored to its place. 

As the fleet and the garrison were cannonading each other, 
the cable of the Hermes was cut, and she drifted directly under 
the guns of the fort. The Americans seized the opportunity 
and raked her fore and aft. In such a fire she could not be 
handled, and finally ran aground a half mile off. Even the 
brig next her could hardly get out to sea. Finally the com- 
mander and crew of the Hermes fired the ship and abandoned 
her, while the rest of the fleet drew off and sailed towards 
Pensacola, leaving the burning Hermes to her fate. The 
illumination was beautiful, and at eleven o'clock that night 
she blew up, and "with fragments strewed the sea." Jackson 
heard the report at Mobile, thirty miles away, and was ago- 
nized to think it might be the fort itself. 

The victory was complete. The loss of the Americans was 
but four killed and as many wounded ; while on the ships there 
were one hundred and sixty men killed and seventy wounded, 
besides two killed on land. Jackson rejoiced at the brilliant 
success, and on September 17 wrote from Mobile a letter of 
congratulations to Lawrence and his gallant men.^ He would 
have been in the fort himself, but for going back to Mobile to 
send down the reinforcements under Laval, whom the cannon- 
ade prevented from landing. 

A curious incident of the battle was that it was witnessed by 
Nolte, a New Orleans cotton speculator, who had two hundred 
and fifty bales of cotton on boats in the bay awaiting the result. 
^ A. L. Latour's War in West Florida and Louisiana, pp. 32^2. 



380 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

He followed the fleet to Pensacola, sold his cotton at twenty- 
two cents a pound, bought blankets, and sold them profitably 
at New Orleans, making about double the cost price each way.^ 

Jackson issued at Mobile, four days later, his two famous 
proclamations to Louisianians. One of these called on the 
colored people to arm, and aroused much feeling among the 
whites on the Mississippi. But as soon as General Coffee 
arrived on Mobile River with twenty -eight hundred men, Jack- 
son joined him, changed the cavalry into, infantry by turning 
the horses loose on the river bank, and marched in another 
direction. 

As he could not hear from the War Department, Jackson 
took the responsibility of proceeding from Mobile, in Novem- 
ber, with three thousand men to caj)ture Pensacola. His route 
was by transport across to the Village, where Jackson's Oak is 
still shown, under which his tent was pitched,^ and thence 
overland to his Florida victory. He was soon back at Mobile, 
however, ready, "by the Eternal," to prevent invasion here or 
anywhere else. Satisfied that New Orleans would be the point 
of attack, he marched over to Baton Rouge in December. One 
of his encampments on the way was in the Espejo grant on 
Bayou del Salto, between Cottage Hill and Spring Hill, and 
in consequence both creek and tract have ever since been 
called "Cantonment." From Baton Rouge he went south- 
wardly, and won his brilliant victory behind cotton-bales below 
New Orleans on January 8, 1815, — "St. Jackson's Day." 

An interested witness of that great battle was Sara Dale, 
who arrived during its progress, after his remarkable ride of 
eight days from Hawkins' Creek Agency in Georgia, bearing 
dispatches from Washington. These were too late to do any 
good. Jackson said, "They are always too late at Washing- 
ton." But Dale's time was remarkable, for the express even 
from Mobile was often fourteen days. 

It was Dale who carried east the news of the great victory. 
For Jackson was so much impressed with his ride from Geor- 
gia that he sent him immediately back, and, at Big Sam's 
own request, on the same tough Georgia pony, Paddy. Even 
Colonel Sparks could not stop him at the lakes to get the news; 

1 Parton's Jackson, pp. 600, 604, 608, 611, etc. 

^ Conversations with William R. Yancey, of the Village. 



FORT BOWYER. 381 

and the third day, past midnight, he roused up Winchester, 
Jackson's successor at Mobile. "Winchester put him off until 
daylight, then to ten A. M., and then until noon, upon which 
Dale sent word that if the dispatches were not ready by twelve 
he would go without them. He got them, however, and at noon 
was on his way. He had to swim his horse over the swelling 
Alabama at Randon's Landing, and thus, in freezing weather, 
he x'ode on, swimming streams, and bearing to all posts news 
of the glorious victory over the British. On the fifth day from 
Mobile he reached Mcintosh's army at Fort Decatur, on the 
Tallapoosa, where a sentinel all but shot him, and the general 
had to support the half -frozen courier into where a fire and 
whiskey could thaw him out. But the next morning he left 
again, and on the third evening out ended his long ride by 
delivering his dispatch to Governor Early at Milledgeville. 
There he and Paddy provoked almost as much interest as the 
news they bore.^ 

Major Lawrence was still in command at Fort Bowyer. No 
doubt the rejoicing there was tempered with the reflection that 
the British fleet might next attack that post and try to capture 
Mobile, in order to hold the Alabama basin and the middle 
Mississippi behind General Jackson. 

Denison Darling was from Fort Stoddert, and Benjamin S. 
Smoot had been with this, the second regiment, even before 
the Americans occupied Mobile. Smoot is said to have come 
to Mobile as a voluntary aide to Jackson, and' his miniature 
shows a beardless youth in a high stock, and blue coat with 
slashed red facings, a wide purple sash, epaulettes, and white 
belt supporting a handsome sword. Darling and he about 
1813 erected, at a cost of one thousand to fifteen hundred 
dollars, a store within gunshot of Fort Bowyer. The building 
was eighteen by thirty -five feet, and a story and a half high. 
Curtis Lewis was their clerk, and they did a good business. 
The soldiers traded there, and the officers recognized their 
orders up to half their pay or more. Captain Reuben Cham- 
berlain says the store was a great convenience. Alas, the fate 
of war! The store was now to be hastily dismantled and 
destroyed, by the command of Major Lawrence himself. For 

^ Claiborne's Dale, p. 160, etc. 



88-2 COLONIAL ^fOBrLE. 

the British wovo ai'tunllv t'omiui;-, and the houso of Smoot iSc 
Darling" niig'ht sht^ltor tluMn in an aitai'k i>n tlio tort.^ 

On the t)th of Fobrnarv, the tioot was soon oft' Dan]>lnno 
Island, and early the no\t day twonty-tivo vossols anohorod, 
extending from that island to Fort HoNvyor on Mobile Point, 
Nvhilo thirteen were parallel witli the eoast behind the fort. 
On the 8th, not less than live thonsand men were landed three 
and a half miles from the fort, and they soon eommnnieated 
with Keane's division of twenty-tive himdred on Dan]diine 
Island by barges and boats plying ineessantly over the bay: 
for the British eamp e\teniU\l aoross the Point. 

On the iHh, the siege may be said to have been eommem'ed 
by the erection of a treneh and battery on a eonnnaniling 
monnd. The garrision were vigilant and tired ineess:intly, but 
sand mounds sheltered the invaders. On the 10th, the British 
had a treneh on the south side of the Point, and by night 
advanced their wi>rks to within forty yards of the fort. 

Kesistanee was now futile, and so, when at ten a. m. on the 
11th there was a summons to surrender in half an hour, a 
parley ensueil, and finally it was agreed that the fort be sur- 
rendered at noon the next day. The loss to the Amerieans 
hail been one killed and ten wounded, including Lawrence 
himself: to the British, forty killed. 

The articles proviiled. (1^ That the fort shovdil be surrendered 
in its existing condition; (^'2^ The garrison should march out 
with flags flying and drums beating, and ground arms on the 
glacis, the ot^eers, however, to retain their swords: (3) Pri- 
vate property should be respected: and (A) Conunuuication 
should be permitted with the oi^cer eonunauding the seventh 
district, and exchange of prisoners eft'ected : (5) The garrison 
shouhl remain until noon of the 13th, but there should be a 
British guard at the inner gate at tluve r. m. of the preceding 
day, and the new flag hoisted at the same time. 

* See Report of House Committee of Claims, February 4. 18ol. Smoot 
finally received ^l.lXX). See U. S. Statutt\< at Larije, p. 466. The minia- 
ture is in the possession of B. S. Woodooek, of Mobile, a descendant of 
Smoot. Mrs. William Calvert, who Nvas rescued as an infant from Fort 
Minis, ^^-as a dausjhter, and Mrs. Ilolon "NVobster is a i;raiid daughter, of 
Davliuj;. Mrs. Curtis Lewis was a o^rauddanj^htor of Si^p Robert Farmer; 
she was daughter of De Vauberev, of Dauphine Island. 



FORT BOWYER. 383 

Winchester had made from Mobile a tardy and unsuccessful 
attempt to succor the fort. On the 10th and 11th, he sent a 
detachment across the Lay under the command of Major Blue 
to divert the enemy, with the result that the enemy captured 
his three small schooners after the troops had landed. The 
Americans managed in their turn to take a barge with seven- 
teen British seamen, who told them of the surrender of the 
fort. People in town guessed it from reports of citizens who 
had gone down to Jack's Bluff on the western shore, and from 
there, the residence of Maximilien Colin, had seen a boat go 
ashore to take possession after the firing ceased. 

All was confusion at Mobile. On the 15th, Winchester 
wrote James Monroe, the Secretary of War, of the disaster, 
and said that he expected the enemy every night; but he was 
fortunately disappointed, and no further attack was made. 
Jackson, writing yet later, said he was both astonished and 
mortified at the defeat; but he was afterwards to do justice to 
the garrison, and a court-martial on March 25 exonerated 
Lawrence.^ 

Recently there has been published a history of the famous 
British Fortieth Regiment, which contains the journal of a 
lieutenant who was with them at Mobile Bay. He was on 
Dauphine Island, and gives a very different account of affairs, 
lie says that they landed on the 12th, and that night a cor- 
vette attempted to storm the fort, but ran aground and had 
to be blown up, by illumining the whole bay. The two hun- 
dred frightened Indians who had been aboard were cajjtured 
by the Americans. 

1 Latour's War in West Florida, etc., pp. 208-212, 215, 219, cl, xxvi, 
Ixxxiii, Ixxxvii, xcviii, etc. The garrison surrendered consisted of one field 
officer, three captains, ten subalterns, two staff officers, sixteen sergeants, 
sixteen drummers, three hundred and twenty-seven rank and file, twenty 
women, sixteen children, and three servants not soldiers. The ordnance con- 
sisted of one twenty-four-pounder and two nine-pounders outside of the 
fort, and, within, three thirty-two-pounders, eiglit twenty-four-pounders, six 
twelve-pounders, five nine-pounders, besides a small brass piece, an eight- 
inch mortar, a howitzer, three hundred and fifty-one muskets, five hundred 
flints, powder, cartridges, etc. The brass mortar was one cast in George II. 's 
reign, and was the only piece taken away by the British. Admiral Cochrane 
on the 12th wrote Jackson from II. B. M. ship Tonnant, off Mobile Bay, 
as to exchange of prisoners. 



384 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

The Fortieth sailed shortly afterwards for Europe, and at 
Waterloo were under the personal command of Wellington 
himseK. But even Jove nods, and the lieutenant of the great 
regiment must have mixed his notes. The burning vessel 
reminds one of the first attack on Fort Bowyer, and the dates 
of the official papers discredit the new version; and yet it is 
confirmed in part by the tradition of the death there of captive 
Indians from yellow fever. ^ 

The second defence was less successful but not less honor- 
able than the first, and there were now to be no further hostili- 
ties. The British headquarters on Dauphine Island were at 
the Shell Banks, and many of their dead were buried on the 
island. On February 13, Admiral Cochrane from off Mobile 
Bay sent Jackson the copy of a bulletin, " this moment received 
from Jamaica," announcing the signing of a treaty of peace 
at Ghent on December 24, upon which he offers his sincere 
congratulations. Jackson was suspicious of the report, but it 
proved to be true. 

We remember the French execution in front of the fort after 
the mutiny at Fort Toulouse, but a noted American execution 
that followed the conclusion of peace was certainly not near 
the esplanade. 2 We are told that it was on February 21, 
1815, in an open place near Mobile, while the British fleet was 
still at anchor, but tradition has lost the exact spot. We may 
fairly conjecture, however, from the location of roads and of 
Jackson's camp at the time, that it was not far from Frascati. 

It came about in this way. In September preceding, a 
number of Tennessee soldiers abandoned the army in the Creek 
country, claiming that the three months for which they en- 
listed had expired. Their commander construed the time 
differently. The men were court-martialed at Mobile in De- 
cember, 1814, and six, all brave men, condemned to death. 
Jackson, after the battle of New Orleans, approved the finding. 

The Mobile army of fifteen hundred men under General 
Winchester marched to the scene of execution, and a large 
crowd of spectators attended. The six were driven there in a 
wagon, and after their heads were covered with white caps 

1 It is said that fifty years later, after the capture of Fort Morgan, Fed- 
eral troops dug up Indian skeletons and ornaments. 

2 2 Parton's Jackson, p. 277. 



FORT BOWYER. 385 

they were shot down beside their coffins, in due military form, 
by thirty-six comrades. One victim, named Harris, was a Bap- 
tist preacher with a large family, Henry Lewis was the only 
one not killed outright. He crawled forward, before them all, 
and climbed on his coffin, where he sat dazed, covered with 
blood. He was removed from this slaughter-pen by pitying 
hands and lived several days. Such unnecessary severity threw 
a pall on the rejoicings over the peace, and was remembered 
in politics against Jackson long afterwards. 

As all captured places held by either nation were, according 
to treaty, to be surrendered, negotiations were soon in progress 
looking to the evacuation of Fort Bowyer. On March 17, 
General Lambert sent word to Mobile by Major Woodruff 
that he would give it up as soon as the transports could get out 
of the bay. 

There was also animated correspondence and spirited inter- 
views about the surrender of slaves. Lambert contended that 
the many negroes in his camp on Dauphine Island were refu- 
gees, and he could not admit that the agreement for surrender 
of captured property covered slaves, as England did not recog- 
nize property in human beings. 

There was much feeling on the subject, but the British com- 
mander agreed he would not object, if only persuasion were 
used by the slaveholders. One Louisianian, Major Lacoste, 
is said to have gone to Dauphine Island with this view, and, 
getting his slaves off to one side, he threatened and cajoled and 
drew such a picture to them of British cruelty, all in plantation 
French, which the English could not understand, that he got 
his people away with him without trouble. The major ever 
afterwards told this story with great gusto. ^ 

At last the troops were all embarked, and the ships sailed 
away for Euroi^e. Dauphine Island had seen her last great 
gathering of war vessels until the American Civil War. 
^ 4 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 532. 



CHAPTEE XLV. 

MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 

With the peace, affairs settled down in east Mississippi, 
and the development began of the vast territory ceded by 
the Indians. The older towns inajsroved, but the most striking 
feature of the time was the growth of the interior. The river 
plantations enriched Mobile, but they also led to the building 
of inland villages, which have gradually become important 
cities. From about 1816, we find settlers where Montgomery, 
Selma, and Tuskaloosa later stood. 

The site of Montgomery was an Indian camping-ground and 
trading-post called Econachattee. Andrew Moore lived there 
in 1815, and then came Jonathan C. Farley, Andrew Dexter, 
and J. G. Klinck as the first permanent white residents. An- 
other Moore, Thomas, arrived in 1816 where Selma is, and 
the place was at first called Moore's Bluff from him. The 
name Selma was later taken by William R. King from the 
poetry of Ossian. In the same year Thomas York moved 
from Blount County to what is now within the corporate limits 
of Tuskaloosa. The country had started on its development. 

The Mississippi half of the territory had grown faster, 
having the great river as its "promoter," and became a sepa- 
rate State in 1817. The eastern half was organized as the 
Territory of Alabama, with capital at St. Stephens. Alabama 
was therefore, geographically, but the river system draining to 
Mobile, with the Tennessee valley added on the north. 

St. Stephens was now in its glory. It was the capital of the 
Territory, the seat of the Land Office and of a bank, and 
had many citizens who then or afterwards became prominent. 
There the first and second legislatures deliberated, when James 
Titus, of Madison, as the only Alabama member of the divided 
Mississippi upper chamber, "met" by himself and gravely 
preserved all parliamentary forms. William Wyatt Bibb, late 



MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 387 

of Georgia, was governor, and James Magoffin in charge of 
the United States Land Office. Silas Dinsmore is said to 
have been collector, and to have lost his office by injudicious 
wit. The story goes that, when asked by the government 
authorities at Washington how far the Tombigbee ran up the 
country, he replied that it did not run up the country at all, 
but down. The Tombeckbee Bank, some of whose paper of 
1818 still exists, had such officers as J. B. Hazard and William 
Crawford. James G. Lyon was in the merchandise business 
in the town, selling wood to steamboats and living over his 
store. Jack F. Ross also settled there, after coming to Mo- 
l^ile at Jackson's instruction to pay off the army. He became 
treasurer of Alabama, and was relieved by legislative act from 
loss of the public money burned with his home. He was 
afterwards sheriff of Mobile, but his son William H. was born 
in 1819 at St. Stephens. 

No map is now known of the town, but even in the Mobile 
rn^ords we find its lots numbered as high as 131, and Lime 
and High streets mentioned among its thoroughfares. 

Had the Mississippi Convention been j)ermitted to have 
their way, St. Stephens and .Mobile, too, would have been 
placed in that State, for they wished the Tombigbee and Mobile 
Bay to be the eastern boundary. The project has had even 
later advocates. 

The government of the Mobile district was, of course, mili- 
tary at first, by the general in charge, although we find even 
in 1813 a number of marriages by Pollard, Mervin, Powell, 
and Robeshow, justices of the peace of Mobile County, and 
one by Vicente Genin, the Catholic priest. ^ During the Ci'eek 
War the territorial legislature of Mississippi, on January 20, 
1814, after the battle of the Holy Ground, passed an act for 
the incorporation of the Mobile citizens. 

Under it, on March 11, 1814, a meeting of the inhabitants 
was held at the house of M. McKinsey, Josiah Blakeley in the 
chair, and it was resolved to hold the election at the dwelling- 
house of Wilson Carmon. These residences cannot now be 
identified, but were no doubt like the few Spanish one-story 

' For marriages, see Appendix. There is some uncertainty whether the 
justice was named Robeshaw or Robeshow, just as whether another promi- 
nent citizen spelled his name Duval or Duvol, 



388 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

buildings still remaining. Lewis Judson, James Innerarity, 
and B. Dubroca were appointed commissioners (inspectors 
we should now call them), and Innerarity and Samuel Acre, 
the lawyer, a committee to prepare a few translations of the 
act into French, to be posted uj) conspicuously. These peace- 
ful affairs were contemporaneous with Jackson's march to 
Horseshoe Bend. The polls were accordingly open at Car- 
mon's on Monday, March 14, from ten to four o'clock. Lewis 
Judson, James Innerarity, B. Dubroca, P. H. Ilobart, T. 
Powell, A. Robeshow, and S. H. Garrow were duly elected 
commissioners of the town of Mobile, Miguel Eslava treasurer, 
Michael McKinsey collector, and Dominique Salles assessor, 
— a mixture of the old and new stocks. How many property- 
owners were there to vote we do not know; but tlwoo year;? 
later, at a similar election, only seventeen voters are mentioned, 
although we have the names of over a hundred male residents. 

The next day the commissioners were sworn into office by 
Josiah Blakeley, as one of the justices of the qMOl""^ * 
Mobile County. Innerarity was elected president, and Mc- 
Kinsey clerk. On the 16th, a business meeting was held, the 
first acts being the appointment of a committee on rules on 
motion of S. H. Garrow, then a resolution establishing the 
boundaries of the town and of the three wards, and one fixing 
the tax rate at twelve and a half cents on the hundred dollars. 
The town limits began at Choctaw Point, then ran due west to 
where a perpendicular line due north wovild strike Murrell's 
Ford over Bayou "Chateaugay" (Three Mile Creek), thence 
down that creek to the east side of the river, thence south, etc. , 
to the beginning. These are substantially what the boundaries 
have now long been ; but an act of the legislature of December 
1, 1814, made them triangular, running from Choctaw Point 
to a place two hundred yards above the Portage on Bayou 
Chotage, thence down the bayou to its mouth, and thence 
down the river and bay to the place of beginning. ^ This 
would seem to take the river out of the town limits, while the 
ordinance had included it. The Portage was important as the 
source of water supj^ly, water being hauled thence for the use 
of troops and citizens, too. Even several years later we find 
the lawful charge for hauling a barrel of water to be fifty 
^ Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, p. 781. 



MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 389 

cents. The South Ward as established by the commissioners 
was that part of the town lying south of the fort, as under 
the Spaniards; and the first American house there was that 
erected by Joseph P. Kennedy, Eslava's lawyer, at the south- 
west corner of St. Emanuel and Monroe streets. ^ The Middle 
Ward extended from the fort to Dauphin Street, and the North 
embraced all north of Dauphin. Among the rules was one 
that resolutions adopted should be published by affixing three 
copies in French in the most public places, showing that and 
not Spanish to be the predominant language. Non-attendance 
of commissioners was punished by fine of one dollar, and the 
commissioners received no compensation, — except the usual 
honor and abuse. The treasurer had only his stationery; while 
the collector and assessor were each allowed two and a haK 
per cent, on taxes collected, and the clerk a salary of two 
hundred dollars per annum. The taxes (exclusive of licenses) 
seem to have been levied only on land and slaves, and a pen- 
alty equal to the tax was added for not making return to the 
assessor. After demand by the collector at the house, the 
taxes, when necessary, were sued before justices. 

A police commissioner was appointed for each ward to see 
to enforcement of ordinances, and there were two police consta- 
bles to make arrests. Fines were declared by the board after 
hearing the parties, and, unless paid then, sued and collected 
before a justice. They were divided between the constable 
and the town. 

The early ordinances relate to cows and goats at large, the 
regulation of balls, to slaves, obstructing and digging in 
streets, to burning lime, chimneys, licenses, and the like. The 
discharge of firearms was prohibited, except to kill dogs at 
large. This dog ordinance was passed on account of hydro- 
phobia at Pascagoula. Their law against drums (like many 
others still in force) seems aimed at the Spanish custom at 
auctions. Licenses were legalized by the act of December 1, 
1814, and, as laid, the vehicle license applied as well to plea- 
sure as to business conveyances. Licenses on stores where dry 
goods, groceries, or liquor over a quart were sold, were for the 
first year five dollars, retail liquor places eight dollars, board- 
ing-houses ten dollars, and billiard-tables twelve dollars. The 
' Michel's petition before U. S. Senate, January 9, 1840. 



390 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

first injunction suit was over this "grog-sliop" tax. The rates 
were raised the next year, except that billiard-tables were less. 

March 28, the board determined on building a frame mar- 
ket-house, fifty by twenty -five feet and nine feet high, closed 
on the north side. The site, selected on motion of Judson, was 
that previously occupied for burning lime, at the northeast end 
of Dauphin Street, adjoining the water. Garrow entered a 
formal and vigorous protest against the place, on the ground 
that it was not a proper site, and was against the interest and 
views of the majority of the inhabitants, but it was adhered 
to. A clerk of the market was elected by the first board, who 
should keep a lookout on all weights and standards. Thomas 
G. Newbold, an arrival in Mobile of 1810, was first market 
clerk, and late in the fall he was duly provided with wooden 
and tin measures and iron and lead weights. 

On April 4, they established a bread tariff or "assize," and 
this practice was kept up for a long time. Flour being ten 
dollars a barrel, the "bit loaf" should weigh twenty -eight 
ounces, — a bit being the Spanish coin worth twelve and a half 
cents. The penalty for violation was a fine, and forfeiture to 
the overseer of the poor of all bread on hand; and a number of 
convictions are on record. 

In April they resolved, on motion of Garrow, that it was 
expedient to build a wharf. He wished it at the end of Gov- 
ernment Street (by the fort esjilanade), but the vote on this 
was a tie. Garrow then left the meeting after forcible remarks, 
whereupon they made a rule that any one using personalities 
should be fined ten dollars. However, his plan for the wharf 
was accepted at the next meeting. The wharf privilege for ten 
years was to be leased to the highest bidder; this "leassee " 
should build the wharf as planned by the commissioners, and 
the town pay him what the structure was worth at the end of 
the term. He could charge not exceeding certain fixed wharf- 
age, as six and a half cents per bale of cotton and one dollar 
per day for vessels of ten tons. This sale of wharf privilege 
(to be advertised in the "Mobile Gazette") did not, any more 
than the market, materialize during the first year, however. 

William Crawford (afterwards United States judge) was 
elected by the board first counsel for the corporation. He 
had to appear before some justice to sue for fines (it was before 



MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 391 

Blakeley until his death in February next), and also defended 
injunctions and advised the board on many questions. One 
was, whether they could stop David Files from putting up a 
mill below the Portage of Bayou "Chateauge," "near the water- 
ing-place made use of by the inhabitants," for Mottus and his 
wife undertook to seU the Espejo Tract, including the wash 
place, to Files and Terrell.^ The board later asked the legis- 
lature for fuller powers over this bayou in order to protect the 
drinking water, but the act of December 1 prohibited their 
removing any milldam across the bayou. The city later aided 
in repair of the bridge there. 

The president could not hold a mayor's court (a defect cor- 
rected by legislation in 1816), but on resolution of the board 
he pulled down defective chimneys, removed buildings erected 
over the street line, and generally represented the police power 
of the town. A police officer was in August employed at the 
salary of ten dollars per month, receiving also half the fines 
levied through his intervention. He was a health officer, too, 
and compelled the free use of lime in the summer. They 
believed then in people's bui'ying dead animals and offensive 
matters on their own premises, although "filth of an inoffen- 
sive nature " was to be deposited in the pond west of the fort, 
earlier used as a "washing place." This was about our Church 
and Franklin streets, on the road to Mandeville. The police 
officer was also to see that the inhabitants understood and 
obeyed the ordinance for cutting down weeds on their lots and 
out to the middle of the street opposite. They had a "vendue 
master," of rather indefinite powers, too, like the British. 

The board in November, during Jackson's stay in the town, 
memorialized the legislature for greater powers and larger 
corporate boundaries. They pointed out that nothing could 
retard the growth of Mobile, and that the town should have 
exclusive control of the bay as far south as Dog River, in order 
to keep the passes open and prevent further injury there from 
the discharge of ballast; but the only power granted by this 
legislature not already noticed was that to extend and lay out 
highways. Congress was also asked for the vacant public lots 
within the corporate limits. This last request remained un- 
heeded for many years. 

1 MoUle Deed Book " A," p. 57. 



392 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

The first board had to establish the whole machinery of 
town government. Their ordinances seem original, as most 
are without reference to French or Spanish precedents, except 
in that they abolish some old usages. They spent five dollars 
for a table and sixty-three dollars on a corporation seal, as 
appears from bills they passed for payment, but little on their 
own convenience. They even met in the mornings, generally 
at nine o'clock, and so avoided the expense of lights, and used 
a room rented for thirty-two dollars a year. 

After the declaration of peace the people, in March, 1815, 
held their second municipal election. Judson (who was the 
new town president), Hobart, Powell, and Robeshow were 
reelected commissioners, and the others were succeeded by 
William Chenault, Diego McVoy, and Michael Perault. Our 
first board turned over to them a net balance in the treasury 
of $^69.85^ to begin on. 

The second board found it necessary to create the office of 
street overseer, electing their colleague Diego McBoy, or Mc- 
Voy, as this Spaniard indifferently spells it. It was during 
this time, too, that the market-house was built. The plan 
actually carried out called for a one-story building forty by 
twenty-five feet, with thi-ee rows of five pillars each, gables, 
and three-foot eaves. The materials were "found by the 
undertaker," — which ominous word only means contractor. 
The one in question was Theron Kellogg, and his contract was 
for three hundred and twenty -five dollars. It was on June 1 
that the board went in a body and designated the place where 
McGill's shoe store now stands as the site on which to raise 
the market. 

Later in the year they paid for the erection of four meat- 
stalls and one for fish, and about the same time made elaborate 
market regvdations. Fresh meat, fish, and oysters could be 
sold only there; and fowls, butter, eggs, cheese, dried meat, 
lard, tallow, corn meal, vegetables, and pulse had to be offered 
there first. Bread and milk, however, could be carried from 
house to house. Market hours were from daybreak until ten 
A. M. Stalls in later years were rented out, but at first there 
seems to have been a fee of twenty-five to thirty-seven and a 
half cents charged per animal, depending on the size. We find 
not only sheep, pigs, and beef, but goats also sold. Later, 



MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 393 

country butchers were exempt, and dried provisions taken out 
of the list. 

This second board also built the wharf which the first had 
planned. It was twenty-five feet wide, with wings at the water 
end, going out to a river depth of nine feet. They leased the 
privilege at auction, giving the wharf, when built to their 
satisfaction, over to the builder to collect certain fixed tolls for 
a period of nine years to reimburse him. This "undertaker" 
was James Wilson, the business partner of S. H. Garrow. 
He was to give the next administration much trouble by trying 
to enter from the government the flooded land adjacent, and 
indeed his wharf agreement ultimately needed the oversight of 
the corporation counsel. 

A market-house and wharf had now been provided, but a 
city prison was still wanting. The authorities had to request 
the commandant of Fort "Sharlot" to loan the city a "cal- 
abous " for imprisoning strange negroes. The election of 
Joseph McCandless as surveyor, and petitioning Congress for 
the establishment of a marine hos2)ital, complete the more im- 
portant acts of this administration, which went out of office on 
March 5, 1816. 

Of the new board Innerarity was president, although Judson 
was also a member. In his time the cow question agitated the 
public mind as in more recent years, and was settled by allow- 
ing each resident to keep five cows instead of two, as in 1814, 
but next year, however, all restrictions were removed. More 
important was the construction of Water Street fifty feet wide 
from Mottus' place to the market, with an outside barrier of 
three squared timbers at from seven and a half to twelve and 
a half cents a foot delivered. This great improvement, giving 
Mobile its first street east of Royal, was accomplished during 
this and the next year, largely by the cooj^eration of John 
Forbes & Co. and Lewis Judson, who voluntarily moved their 
fences and contributed to payment of the expense in considera- 
tion of a quitclaim to lands between the projected street and 
their fence to the west. 

Besides its extra-municipal protest to the postmaster-general 
about there having been but one mail to Fort "Stoddard" in 
two months, this board may also be remembered for its estab- 
lishment of port wardens and their duties, by virtue, doubtless, 



394 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

of the act o£ December 12, 1816, authorizing appointment of 
port wardens and pilots under suitable bonds. 

In March, 1817, a new board came in, with only McVoy 
holding over of the old members, and Daniel Duvol was made 
president. Under them came the first issue of city money, for 
it was resolved to have struck off five hundred dollars in small- 
change notes redeemable in specie, Louisiana, Mississippi, or 
United States Bank notes. The denominations were fifty, 
twenty-five, and twelve and a half cents, having in the left 
margins an ox, horse, and eagle respectively. An overseer of 
the poor dates from this time, and the appointment of bay 
pilots, — J. B. Lamie, James Roney, N. Cook, and T. W. 
Dailey. We do not read that any qualified except Roney and 
Richard Dailey, and these not immediately. 

We incidentally learn from the license list in the minutes 
that there were then twenty-seven merchants with $1,000 
stocks, for these are taxed fifteen dollars each ; and fifteen 
with less, taxed ten dollars each, although three of the last 
pay as much again for a billiard-table, too. 

Possibly the most interesting and important matter then 
was the extension of streets. To the location of the wharf it 
was due that Water Street had been finished from Dauphin to 
Mottus' place south of Government, and now provision was 
made to extend the barrier south to the old (Spanish) wharf. 
But building a north and south street was not all. We may 
remember that in Spanish times there was so little use made 
of the quay that not only was there but one wharf, but the 
east and west streets were little used beyond Royal, and some 
not at all. None were more than lanes at most. Now, how- 
ever, we find a determined and finally successful effort to open 
all, and this probably in ignorance of the old French dedica- 
tion to the water. We see the executors of "Andre" notified 
to open the street from Dubroca's to the river; for, as in 
French or English times, the street names are not given. This 
street is probably St. Francis, for Andry owned there; and 
about the same time Innerarity is ordered to open a street 
from St. Joseph to Royal. This we know must be St. Francis, 
although, with an ahnost Spanish interchange of names, it is 
called St. Charles. In 1819, more vigorous action was taken, 
the street then being named as St. Francis. 



MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 395 

Hardly less important is tlie beginning of draining in the 
appropriation of thirty dollars to open a "canal" to drain the 
pond in the northwest quarter of town. We learn later that 
this was about Wilson's, at St. Michael and Joachim, a low 
place still. There was also a smaller drain opened in the dis- 
trict near Church Street, for it emptied into the fort ditch. 

After the 1818 election, Garrow was president, and in the 
settlement of Treasurer Dubroca we find trouble about a coun- 
terfeit twenty-dollar note, No. 334 H, of the Nashville Bank. 
The matter was compromised by the town's standing half the 
loss and the treasurer the rest. 

This administration established a branch of pilots at Dog 
River Bar, continued street improvement, and contracted for a 
barrier northwards from the market to Holman's Wharf, near 
the foot of St. Francis Street. It was early alarmed at finding 
there were one hundred and sixty-six casks of gunpowder in 
town. Captain Falk was requested to store them in the fort, 
and the town limited the amount to be kept by merchants 
and immediately went about building the first powder-house. 
Where this was is not stated, but it seems to have been on 
a half acre of McCandless' land, "in the vicinity of this 
place," for he claimed and received damages for the ninety 
pine trees cut without permission. Paupers from vessels being- 
frequent, it was provided that passengers must be officially 
reported, and bond given where necessary. 

Subscriptions were also raised to buy two fire-engines lately 
brought to town. One we know cost four hundred and thirty 
dollars. There was a meeting in the jaresident's office under 
the wide-galleried United States Hotel, northwest corner of 
Conti and Royal, to organize the first fire company. Suitable 
houses were afterwards built, one on the Hospital lot. Next 
year two fire wards were established, divided by Dauphin 
Street, an engine and company being in each. Each house- 
owner was required to have handy at least two standard size 
leather buckets. All of this was in an elaborate ordinance 
prescribing precautions against fire. 

Even before 1818, when the first bank was established, a 
river steamer had been built, and by that year the port was 
full of vessels, one being from Liverpool. Seven thousand 
bales of cotton were handled by the little town of eight hun- 



396 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

dred inhabitants; and two seasons later it was sixteen thousand 
bales, with the steamboats Harriet and Cotton Plant plying 
the rivers and making the growing interior tributary to an 
extent not dreamed of in the days of Indian trade. The Cotton 
Plant was, in the spring of 1823, the first steamboat to ascend 
the upper Bigbee, and on that occasion made her famous trip 
to Columbus and return in thirteen da3^s. 

During Garrow's second term, in 1819, came sinking the 
public well on Dau])hin and Royal, and buying for one hun- 
dred and forty dollars a "burying ground" from W. E. 
Kennedy a half mile southwest of the inhabited part of the 
town, — what we call the Old Graveyard, in the heart of the 
present city. It was important just then from a disastrous 
visitation of yellow fever in the summer of that year, which 
the commissioners determined to investigate. The cemetery 
was fenced in 1821 at a cost of four hundred and fifty dollars. 
A city sexton was put in charge in 1820, who could demand 
seven dollars for digging graves five feet deep and supplying 
hearse. 

The well on Dauphin and Royal was part of a plan for sink- 
ing pumps, which was carried out several years later, but now 
begins the laying of "sewers," which, with repairs, makes up 
so much of the early minutes. These were box drains largely, 
as with the first down Daui^hin across the flats to the river. 
The inhabitants had to make their own sidewalks of earth or 
gravel. The first book of ordinances also dates from this time, 
copied by Mr. Willis, covering many subjects, and in a large 
measure the basis of what still exist. 

There was this year a town meeting to increase taxation in 
order to provide for improvements and the care of the poor, 
which resulted in a poll-tax of one dollar for the poor fund. 
With a just appreciation of the future "increase of the town 
of Mobile," on July 23 a new street one hundred feet wide 
was provided for, to be ninety feet east of the existing Water 
Street. The new street was called Water Street, and the old 
one renamed Market Street. All foundations between Royal 
and Market were to be brick, or stone ; all east of Market, of 
hewn timber on the sides, — in each case to be, like the wharves, 
filled up with earth, brick, or other clean material. There is 
no clear evidence, however, that, beyond temporary use of the 



MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 397 

name Market Street, any change was made; and next year the 
city provided for a new street of one hundred feet width, and 
distant two hundred feet from Water Street. No name was 
then given to this projected avenue, but it became Commerce 
Street. The surveyor was ordered to stake it out from Gov- 
ernment to St. Francis Street. 

But this carries us beyond the time of the town. On Decem- 
ber 17, 1819, the place was reincorporated by the new State 
of Alabama as the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Mobile.^ 

Across the bay was a nearer rival than St. Stephens. Josiah 
Blakeley we have seen buying the marsh islands from the 
Mobile to the Tensaw. He planned a city which should per- 
petuate his name, and selected as its site the old seat of the 
Apalaches, where the Bayou Solime (Salome) empties into the 
Tensaw. This was the White House plantation, which he had 
bought from Dr. Joseph Chastang, and after the American 
occuj)ation he was cautious enough to obtain a release from the 
Chastang heirs, as he did also from the former owners of his 
marsh lands. 

Accordingly, in May, 1813, he employed James Magoffin, 
a surveyor from St. Stephens, to lay off a town there, extend- 
ing a mile and a half back from its front on the Tensaw. He 
then commenced selling lots. The first sale recorded was in 
July, of ten to Warren Ross Dodge for one thousand dollars, 
one having as high a number as 358, and in a later deed 429 
is mentioned. We read in this and other deeds that there 
were at least two "public squares," and that among the street 
names were Washington, Orleans, Robinson, Franklin, W^ar- 
ren, Greene, Wayne, Clinton, Baldwin, Hancock, Shelby, 
Clarke, and Blount, besides Plum, Fig, Live Oak, and Ridge 
alleys. The lots seem to have been 99 by 199 feet. Judson 
and other Mobilians invested; and the same year Dodge and 
Garrow bought the neighboring McVoy Mill site of four hun- 
dred and eighty acres, with improvements, on Bay Minette. 

The town of "Blakeley" was incorporated under an act of 
January 6, 1814, ^ and Blakeley 's plat duly wafered in the 
Mobile Deed Book "A." This was removed in 1822, however, 
to grace the Baldwin County records and then disappear. 

1 Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, p. 784. 

2 Ibid., p. 796. 



398 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Samuel Haines was Blakeley's lawyer, and secured this incor- 
poration, for wliicli, and his general interest in the new town, 
Blakeley deeded him a number of lots in it.^ 

It is a little singular to think that the founder did not regu- 
larly reside there. His papers date from Mobile, where, as 
member of the county court (a justice of the quorum), he 
took acknowledgments of many deeds, and, as we have seen, 
helped organize the town government. He died in 1815 with- 
out issue, his affairs, according to his " nuncupative will, in 
some confusion.^ His own town continued to grow even after 
his death, and in 1820 we find not only legislation for regula- 
tion of the port and harbor of Blakeley, but an elaborate act 
for government of the corporation. We read two years later 
that Mobile was quite concerned about a contagious disease in 
that town. 

Blakeley came to be an important place, but finally it, too, 
yielded to Mobile, and it may be that like St. Stephens some 
of its houses now face Mobile streets. For its few remaining 
buildings are in ruins and its site is desolate, while from its 
oaks and pleasant heights one can see the spires and electric 
lights of the older city which it once sought to surpass. 

The French had settled the country, but it seems strange, 
after so many changes, to find a new and famous colony by 
them in 1818 up the Tombigbee, not many miles from the site 
of old Fort Tombecb^. 

After Waterloo many Bonapartlsts had to seek new homes, 
and some came to America in 1816. Congress allowed them 
four townships at two dollars and a half per acre, on a credit 
of seventeen years, on condition that they would devote forty 
acres of each section to the vine and olive. They arrived at 
Mobile in May, 1818, after escaping shipwreck at the mouth 
of the bay, and Collector Addin Lewis furnished them a barge 
for the river trip. They settled, on the advice of George S. 
Gaines, at the place they named Demopolis, but unfortunately 
not on the ground contracted for. In their honor the new 
county was named Marengo. 

Among their leaders was Lefebvre-Desnouettes, a distin- 
guished general of Marengo, Austerlitz, and Bautzen, who 

1 Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 93. 

2 Ibid., p. 90. 



MUNICIPAL GROWTH. 399 

was remembered in Napoleon's will. In a small cabin, as in 
a shrine, he kept a bronze o£ the great emperor and trophies 
of his victories. Nicholas Raoul, too, was there, commander 
of the advance guard on the return from Elba, and from ne- 
cessity ferryman on Big Prairie Creek. Peniers, of the regi- 
cide National Assembly, and Rigaud, were other distinguished 
colonists; and George N. Stewart, who married among them, 
came out from Philadelphia as secretary of the association. 
But no olive was planted, the Catawba did not flourish, too 
much time was given up to gayety, and the unfortunate mislo- 
cation of their lands involved them in trouble. In time most 
of them moved away, although descendants of some still 
remain. Lallemand sailed to New York ; Lefebvre-Desnouettes 
went down with the packet Albion off the Irish coast; Raoul, 
after Mexican adventures, returned to be a general in France ; 
and Stewart, Ravesies, Chaudron, and others moved to Mo- 
bile, where their grandchildren now live. Demopolis, incor- 
porated in 1821, grew as an American, not a French town. 

Huntsville has an American history, but somewhat apart 
from that of central and south Alabama. It was founded in 
1806; was incorporated as a city in 1811, on the model of 
Natchez; and in 1816 had the first bank. The "Madison 
Gazette " of 1812 was the second newspaper in the State limits, 
the "Mobile Centinel" being the first. 

Huntsville superseded St. Stephens in 1819 as the temporary 
capital, and there the convention framed the constitution 
under which Alabama was admitted into the Union, December 
14, 1819. Cahaba was, however, selected as the permanent 
capital; and the year 1819, which saw the incorporation of 
Mobile as a city, witnessed also that of Cahaba, Tuskaloosa, 
and Montgomery, each of which was in turn to be the seat of 
ofovernment of the State. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

MAPS AND TITLES. 

There had been a dispute with the United States ever since 
the capture, as there had been when the British succeeded the 
French, about the extent of the public property. Part of the 
bake-house lot, part of the hospital lot, not to mention grants 
of the fort esplanade, were in controversy. And it was largely 
due to absence of official maps. 

The French plan of 1760 was not accessible to the town 
authorities. They knew that there was some official map and 
felt its want, but could not obtain it. In 1817, we find Inner- 
arity supplied with fifty dollars and authorized to obtain this 
or a copy from John Lynd, a notary public in New Orleans ; 
but we later learn that the search was unsuccessful, and the 
money was used for improving the streets. A similar attempt, 
with similar result, was made in Pensacola; and the town had 
to develop as best it could without the map. The United 
States seem to have bought it in 1819 for five hundred dollars 
from a broker in New Orleans, but, when it became known, 
too much had been done to be undone. Government Street 
was by the legislature of 1820 directed to be laid out one 
hundred feet wide, and became the American basis. 

There is an early plan purporting to show Mobile in 1815. 
A copy is in the City Atlas, and as an annex to Gaillard's city 
map of 1866. Unfortunately, no one knows where that accu- 
rate student obtained it. It shows the town extending as far 
west as Joachim (or New) Street, with the fort, cemetery, hos- 
pital, and bakery, besides roads from St. Michael Street to 
Kennedy's Sj^ring, from Dauphin to the Portage, and one from 
near a shot-tower on Joachim past the Ravine Pond to Mande- 
ville. There are but the King's Wharf and Montuse Wharf, 
the latter by the Montuse Tavern, northeast of the fort. In 
point of fact, however, the King's Wharf was blown away in 



MAPS AND TITLES. 401 

1811 and the Montuse Wharf built on the same pilings. North 
of the town is a stockade and lionnd-top House, the house so 
called from being on a knoll at what is now Royal and St. 
Anthony. There, about 1821, was an explosion of a cannon 
on Washington's Birthday, by which James Wilson lost his 
life; and on pilings there lived afterwards Denison Darling. ^ 

Next comes a plan, unofficial in character, made by Wil- 
liams Mathews in 1818 for the purpose of some contemplated 
division of lands acquired from time to time by William E. 
Kennedy and Joshua Kennedy.^ 

The laud question was yet to be settled. No community 
can really flourish without certainty of titles, and everything 
at first was uncertain in Mobile, because the United States did 
not recognize Spanish grants after the cession to France in 
1800, The vigorous protest of the inhabitants in 1817 against 
recognition of British grants was unavailing, although they 
justly said the United States had fully recognized Spanish acts 
and ownership.^ 

Congress legislated several times on the land question.* 
Commissioner Crawford, under act of Congress of April 25, 
1812, and the register and receiver under that of March 3, 
1819, were diligent in reporting on the validity of land claims, 

1 Tradition given by Jeremiah Howland, Wilson's grandson, says that 
this cannon was one of those at St. Michael and Water streets. Mr. Wil- 
liam Calvert, who afterwards married Caroline Darling, attended the funeral 
of her father from the old home. 

2 The Mathews map shows Mobile laid off in squares as far north as St. 
Anthony (with the Toulmin and Mathews tracts beyond), and as far west 
as Warren Street, beyond which, from " Dauphine " to Government, run 
Adams and Pine streets. On Government, from " St. Joakim " to Franklin, 
James Innerarity owns half the distance north to Conti ; and from Conti to 
" Dauphine," between Jackson and Franklin, the church property is marked 
"Public Square." South of Government are Charlotte, Monroe (unnamed 
Eslava), and Liberty streets, running east and west, and Madison, Wash- 
ington, Lafayette, and other projected north and south streets, running 
into Government. No other names occur except " Joshua Kennedy," " Wm. 
E. Kennedy," and those above given ; and in the north part of town one 
square each is marked to J. Wilson, S. H. Garrow, and D. E. Robinson, — 
the first two on the east side of Jackson from St. Michael to St. Anthony, 
and the last on "New" and " Michael," east of Wilson's. The Kennedy 
squares are numbered, but not the town as a whole. 

^ 3 American State Papers, p. 220. 

* 2 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 713 ; 3 Ibid., pp. 528, 699. 



402 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

and their work was confirmed by an act of May 8, 1822. But, 
at the period we have now reached, much, especially as to town 
lots, was still unsettled. This is shown nowhere more clearly 
than in a report of Register Willoughby Barton himself on 
July 11, 1820, from Jackson Court-house. 

"If it were consistent with the nature of his duty," he says, 
"the Register would endeavor to show the impolicy of holding 
the claimants of lots in Mobile to strict proof of compliance 
with the Spanish regulations for the allotment of lands. He 
will only remark, that it has come within his personal observa- 
tion that a very large proportion of the granted lots has been 
built upon, and is inhabited by the grantees and those claiming 
under them, who are generally the ancient native inhabitants ; 
and the circumstance of the uninterrupted possession they were 
permitted to hold of them under the Spanish government 
would seem to entitle them to the favor of Congress in quieting 
them in their claims. The Register will only further add in 
relation to this branch of the subject that the lots granted by 
the French iind Spanish authorities, whilst those governments 
respectively held possession of the country, do not conform in 
their limits or bounds with the original British map or plan of 
the town certified by the Spanish surveyor-general Trudeau, 
and now in the possession of the principal deputy surveyor, 
Mr. Dinsmore ; which fact appeared from the survey i-ecently 
made by him of the public ground on which Fort Charlotte 
stands. Should it be determined to adhere rigidly to this or 
any other plan, great confusion must inevitably ensue in at- 
tempting to reconcile the conflicting boundaries, and serious 
injury result to many, whose principal property consists in 
their lots and habitations. In relation to actual settlers, it 
will be sufficient to remark, that they comprise the principal 
mercantile population of the place; that their imjjrovements 
are generally the most expensive ; and that they cover the most 
valuable vacant ground in the town." ^ 

^ It will be observed that Dinsmore, who prior to the Creek War was the 
United States Choctaw agent, had returned to surveying. All that the Inte- 
rior Department files show on this subject is in connection with Surveyor- 
General Freeman. Thomas Freeman was surveyor of the public lands of the 
United States south of Tennessee from his appointment in September, 1810, 
to March 3, 1817, the date of the act which authorized the appointment of 



MAPS AND TITLES. 403 

The buildings outside the fort property on the Dinsmore 
plat are of interest, although the proposed plan, for reasons 
we shall see, became valueless. On it Judge Edward Hall 
occupies the northwest corner of Government and Royal; the 
Government House is near the west end of the west grass-plat 
of Duncan Place, but at the southeast corner of Government 
and Royal as projected ; while the Post-office and Custom-house 
are about the northwest corner of Government and St. Eman- 
uel. Montuse Tavern and Wharf are respectively on the west 
and east sides of Water Street, at about where the south line 
of Government now runs. Burrow's and Tiddy's are on the 
two corners of Conti, near Judson's wharf; and the United 
States Hotel and Catholic church on Conti and Royal. On 
the west side of Conception then (but now, on account of the 
bend, east of it) were Stiekney's and Taukersley's. Besides 
Judson's, Montuse's, and the King's or Public Wharf, there 
is W. Hamilton & Co.'s wharf to the north of the foot of our 
Monroe Street. 

The treaty for "the purchase of Louisiana provided that all 
property, of course including lands and town lots, of the in- 
habitants, should be respected, and this was done, especially by 
the acts above noticed as to land claims and other acts of later 
date. As to Mobile in particular. Congress, by acts of May 
8, 1822, and March 3, 1827, donated to residents before the 
American capture a reasonable quantity of land, and constituted 

a surveyor for the northern part of Mississippi Territory, and his jurisdic- 
tion as surveyor over the remainder of the Territory continued until the pas- 
sage of the act of April 20, 1818, entitled " An Act respecting the Survey 
and Sale of the Public Lands in Alabama Territory." This provided " that 
the powers and duties of the surveyor for the lands in the northern part of 
Mississippi Territory shall extend to the whole of the Alabama Territory, 
and that Territory only." By letter dated May 10, 1818, Mr. Freeman was 
directed to transmit to the Surveyor-General of Alabama Territory all the 
maps, contracts, field notes, and other papers appertaining to that Territory. 
On May 30, 1819, Mr. Freeman nominated " Silas Diusmoor, Esq.," late 
agent of the Choctaw nation, as his principal deputy for the district east of 
the Island of Orleans, and the indorsement shows the approval of the Presi- 
dent. The length of his tenure of the office is unknown. Just before this 
time, we find Columbus C. Stone also actively surveying in this county, 
although from his illness George N. Stewart was to finish his plats. Dins- 
more surveyed Spring Hill before 1826, and seems to have been living there 
in 1828. 



404 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

the register and receiver a tribunal to receive proof. Their 
reports were full, and were confirmed March 2, 1829. There 
"were later private acts, but by 1829 the great bulk of titles 
were either settled or put in such condition that they could at 
least be settled in the courts.^ 

Many of the Mobile titles were actually thus adjudicated, 
and a number of the relief acts took the same course for con- 
struction. A large volume could be comj^iled from the deci- 
sions on Mobile titles by the Supreme Courts of Alabama 
and the United States, and in fact many of these pages are 
based on them. 

One interesting question was as to ownership of the shore. 
The act of 1824, which granted the bake-house and hosjiital 
lots to the city, also gave to it all public land between high- 
water mark and the channel of the river from Church to North 
Boundary streets in front of the city.^ The second section 
of the act gave to persons owning west of Water Street the 
flooded land opposite, when they had made improvements. 
This was to give rise to lawsuits, of which one of the most 
famous was Pollard v. Kibbe. 

This concerned the title to the property on the north side of 
Government from Water to Commerce. Forbes & Co., we 
remember, owned the northeast corner of Royal and Govern- 
ment under Panton, Leslie & Co., who had filled uj) to about 
Water Street. Forbes & Co. claimed this eastern lot, too, 
because they had improved the western one. The question 
was, on which lot under the act should be the improvement 
in order to earn the water lot? The United States Supreme 
Court decided that the water lot itself must have been im- 
proved, and thus adversely to Forbes & Co.^ Pollard's heirs, 
it is true, had not unproved it either; but their claim was 
under Perez' grant of 1809 to William Pollard of a landing 
for lumber from his mill, and a special act of 1836 confirming 
their title. 

In this instance Curtis Lewis had antagonized both Forbes 
and Pollard by taking possession in 1823, and filling the lot 
for a distance of eighty feet east of Water by about forty 

1 4 C/". 5. Statutes at Large, pp. 239, 358. 

2 Ihid., p. 66. 

3 14 Peters (U. S.), p. 353. 



MAPS AND TITLES. ' 405 

north o£ Government, and, although ousted once in the night- 
time by Innerarity, had regained it. Kibbe claimed under 
Forbes, Lewis, and the city, but lost nevertheless. 

After Commerce Street was run, a new qiiestion was to arise. 
Pollard V. Kibbe had settled the title to the water lots to its 
west; but who owned the new shore, from Commerce Street 
eastwardly? ^ Did the city, under the act of 1824, or was it to 
be a matter of prescription by individuals against the public? 

The Alabama Supreme Court did not hesitate to declare that 
the act of 1824 was unconstitutional in so far as it attempted 
to grant the shore to the city, or to any one else. As Alabama 
was admitted on an equality with the older States, the United 
States could not own or grant the river shore, for they did not 
own it in the original thirteen States. The United States Su- 
preme Court at first seemed to avoid the question, but finally 
had to meet it and sustained the Alabama court. They de- 
clared that the common law prevailed in Alabama, and that 
the Spanish treaty of 1819 as to Florida did not cede Mobile, 
or pass any sovereign ownership of the shores. That treaty, 
they said, only recognized the fact that the United States 
already owned the district. ^ 

1 Boulo V. N. 0. R. R. 55 Ala. p. 480. 

2 Pollard V. Hagan, 3 How. (U. S.) p. 212 ; Mayor v. Eslava, 9 Porter 
(Ala.), p. 577 ; 16 Peters (U. S.), p. 234. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 

Up to the present period in our story, Fort Charlotte has 
been the principal subject of interest. It was so under the 
French, it was so under the Spaniards, and during the short 
time it was neglected by the British we saw that Mobile itself 
was depressed. The fort was the centre of the life of the town, 
and was its protection, too. 

But now it was not so important, although the garrison was 
maintained. With the establishment of a republican govern- 
ment the centre of civil life was rather the council chamber, 
and since the conquest by the United States the danger from 
Indian and foreign attack was greatly lessened. As the town 
grew up around it, the fort itself, which had so long been a 
protection, came to be regarded as in the way. 

Major George P. Peters, of the artillery, was in command 
in 1816, and for better oversight of the fort he built a picket 
fence around it. This interrupted communication with the 
South Ward. The Board of Commissioners, on motion of 
Judson, thereupon claimed the free and-undisturbed use of the 
Common adjoining, as had been the case under former govern- 
ments, and President Innerarity wrote to the commandant to 
request removal of the obstruction. Major Peters, on July 19, 
from Fort Charlotte, declined in the following firm but cour- 
teous manner : — 

"Your communication of the 17th inst. (in consequence of 
my absence) did not reach me until this day. I regret much 
that it contains a requisition which my duty compels me to 
refuse a compliance with. The fence of which you speak 
leaves a part of the glacis outside of it, and it is impossible 
now to pass within it and not travel over some part of the 
fortification. The winding path, which the citizens were per- 
mitted the privilege of passing over during the reign of the 



THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 407 

Spanish commandants, never could have been by them consid- 
ered as a street belonging to the town, because it crosses a part 
of the glacis of the principal works, and does not correspond 
with any street of the town. Therefore the permission above 
alluded to, even in times of peace, never could have grown into 
an absolute right, nor could that of the grazing cattle on any 
part of a fortification ever become so. The only excuse for 
a commanding officer allowing such privileges without [within ?] 
military limits is his possessing absolute authority over the 
subjects enjoying them, and consequently the power to compel 
a reparation of damages by the subjects themselves. It is the 
well-known duty of the commanding officer of a post to pro- 
tect the public property, and keep in repair the public works 
intrusted to his care. The object of the fence, therefore, 
cannot be mistaken, nor the necessity of it denied. 

"In fulfilling my duty as an officer of the United States 
Army, I have ever been cautious of any infringements on the 
rights of citizens, or debarring them of any convenience which 
they could consistently enjoy. It is well known that the citi- 
zens of this town, far from having lost any privileges by the 
change of government, have acquired new rights." 

So the fence remained until there was a change in the com- 
manding officer. On May 17, 1817, we find the board, appar- 
ently on motion of the energetic Garrow, appointing a commit- 
tee of the president (Duvol), Garrow, and C. S. Stewart to 
wait on Captain Beale upon his arrival, and request him to 
open the highway between the north and south ends of this 
town. They further resolved that, if he refused, the police 
officer of the town should be authorized to remove said obstruc- 
tion. Mr. Lemuel Childress was the one lone policeman of 
the corporation at the time, and it would be interesting to 
know how he contemplated the responsibility thus thrust upon 
him of defying the military of the United States. We do not 
learn that either Captain Beale or Ajax Childress removed the 
fence and opened the winding path across the eastern glacis, 
say through the centre of the present market buildings. It is 
perhaps significant, however, that in a few days we find Chil- 
dress removed, Timothy McGrath substituted, and elaborate 
rules declared for the government of the police officer. 

About this time we get an official description of the fort. 



408 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Brigadier-General Bernard, on December 23, 1817, made a 
report to Chief Engineer Swift, U. S. A., on the southern 
frontier of the Union, and in the course of it speaks as follows 
of Fort Charlotte, the masonry of whose scarf he declares 
would be easily breached in a siege. He says : — 

"Fort Charlotte, at Mobile Town, has been constructed at the 
beginning of the eighteenth century : of all the forts in Louisi- 
ana, this is the only one well and judiciously built; its delinea- 
tion and relief are far below that degree of perfection the art 
had attained in Europe at that epoch. However, both were 
more than adequate to the purpose for which that fort was 
intended. It has lost its importance (on account of pacification 
of the Indians). It hardly defends the west branch of River 
Mobile, and not at all the branches eastward; consequently it 
does not defend the opening of the valleys north of Mobile Bay. 
However, in the actual state of things, this fort may and ought 
to be considered as a depot for the militia of the valleys of 
Alabama and Tombigbee, also as a place of arms against Pen- 
sacola, and ought to be preserved and kept in repair as long as 
the said Port of Pensacola does not belong to the Union." 

The dissatisfaction of the municipal authorities and the criti- 
cism of the military united for the ruin of Fort Charlotte. 
The pen proved mightier than the sword, and on April 20, 
1818, Congress passed an act for the sale of Bienville's fort.^ 

This was not actually carried into effect until 1820. Mean- 
while the place continued garrisoned, and routine papers remain 
in the War Department relative to returns of property, and 
accounts of Captain A. L. Sands of the artillery, and Captain 
Willis Foulk of the 8th Infantry. The fall of 1819 was a 
sickly one, and we find medicines and hospital stores sent 
Peters and Stebbins, of Mobile, for the attending surgeon. 
Pensacola had then just come into possession of the United 
States, and hospital stores for that point were also forwarded 
through Captain Foulk. 

After the conclusion of the treaty by which Florida was 
purchased from Spain, the company of artillery at Mobile was, 
on March 21, 1821, directed to occupy Pensacola, and the 
military stores were also removed there. 

^ 3 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 465. Bernard's report was furnished by 
the War Department. 



THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 409 

The troops evacuated Fort Charlotte, and everything was 
prepared for the sale of the land. As provided by the act, 
Silas Dinsmore, United States deputy surveyor, was directed 
to plat it into squares, conforming as nearly as practicable to 
the general city plan. This he did, and the property was 
divided into nine unequal squares, No. 5 being the fort prop- 
erty. Royal Street was not continued in a straight line, but 
south of Government it began a little to the east. AU streets 
were to be sixty feet wide, all lots thirty. A street, now 
Water, was platted through the shallow "Bay" east of the 
tract. The Fort Charlotte j)roperty extended from Water 
Street to the west of St. Emanuel, in the centre reaching Con- 
ception, and stretched more regularly from our Monroe north 
to Government. 

A letter of March 19, 1822, from Dinsmore, regarding his 
connection with the sale, has survived in the Interior Depart- 
ment. He writes thus to Hon. Josiah Meigs : — ' 

"I am not satisfactorily advised of the names or qualities 
of my calumniators, but the charge is a supposed criminal in- 
terest which it was alleged I had taken in (what is called) the 
Willis Speculation I The whole amount of my sinning is this. 
Madame Chotard, relict and representative of Henry Willis, 
applied for a location on the Public Lot in Mobile, including 
Fort Charlotte, or Fort Conde. On the day of public sale she 
published a caveat, and, as she did not wish to appear person- 
ally in a mixed crowd, requested me to read her caveat aloud, 
which I did, without comment, and of which no notice was 
taken by sellers or buyers. It is not in my nature to deny an 
importunate request delicately urged by a lady; and by such 
a lady, it became an irresistible command. Nor can I feel 
conscious that I committed any crime, religious, moral, or 
political ; nor had I any interest, the most remote, in the success 
or failure of Madame Chotard 's claim, nor in any speculation 
where the interests of the United States were concerned." 

There were some individual buyers at this United States sale 
of October, 1820, but the bulk of the property went to a syn- 
dicate, who had raised a fund for the purpose. On the 11th 
of the month, there met in Armstrong's room in Pope's Hotel 
a number of gentlemen to consider making "common stock" 
of all the lots. It would seem that Lewis Judson, John B. 



410 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

Hogan, Edward Hall, and Addin Lewis were among the 
movers in this enterprise. 

The plan was carried out, and on the 14th a constitution was 
adopted, providing for trustees, who should have a new survey 
made, and hold and convey lots from time to time, on credit 
of a quarter cash and the remaining quarters at intervals of 
six months. The shares were fixed at one hundred dollars, 
and an assessment of about thirty per cent, allowed for expenses 
and improvements. Money collected should be deposited in 
the Mobile Bank, and there should be semi-annual distribution 
of the proceeds of sale. It was contemplated, however, that 
all business should be wound up by January 1, 1824. 

The trustees elected were John B. Hogan, Edward Hall, T. 
W. Armstrong, William Barnett, and Addin Lewis, and of 
the subscribers of the constitution all but a very few were men 
then or soon to be prominent citizens of Mobile. Meetings 
were occasionally held, and the last recorded was in 1822. 

The map under which this Lot Company's sales were made 
was recorded. It was by Thomas Hubbard, city surveyor, 
and shows the present streets, squares, and lots. This re- 
arrangement of lots faces them all on Water, Royal, and St. 
Emanuel; except that west of Royal, all adjacent to Church or 
Theatre face these two east and west streets. The lot of one 
hundred and twenty feet on the west side of St. Emanuel by 
eighty on the north side of Church Street, for a union Protest- 
ant church, is shown, and there are lots between Water Street 
and the river, — a variation from the original survey which 
was to give trouble. The United States Supreme Court was 
to declare that the sale of the fort did not embrace anything 
east of Water Street. ^ 

To Hubbard's resurvey we are indebted for better preser- 
vation of the plan of the city; but one or more of Dinsmore's 
lots still exist, and even Hubbard could not prevent the awk- 
ward connection of Royal with the old street separating Eslava's 
house from the colored settlement opposite. We remember 
the Spaniards never named it, but it was henceforth a narrower 
Royal Street. 

Just as the building of the market had determined the run- 
ning of Water Street, and was to lead to the reclamation later of 
1 Mobile V. Eslava, 16 Peters (U. S.), p. 243. 



if^' 



THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 411 

Commerce also, so the re-platting of the Fort Charlotte prop- 
erty determined that the streets for several blocks below should 
run parallel to Government, and not, as in Mathews' fanciful 
plat of 1818, into Government at an angle from the southeast. 

And yet planning streets through the Vauban walls was not 
altogether the same as opening them, and the new city discussed 
several plans before the actual demolition was accomplished. 
Gunpowder was needed to blow down this solid masonry of 
Mobile brick and oyster-shell lime; and to fill up the new 
streets the debris was used, instead of the sand which had been 
industriously hauled before. From time to time in 1821-23, 
we find amounts expended by the city for pulling down the 
fort walls that were in the street, and after some hesitation 
permission seems even to have been granted citizens to use dirt 
from the old site for filling lots. Water Street was raised 
with it, and St. Francis and its intersection with Royal were 
filled up in the same way. Even some of the fort cannon were 
used to protect street corners, as Royal and Dauphin and St. 
Michael and Water still testify. One in some way fell over 
and sank in the ground, to be rediscovered only within the 
past few years in excavating for a sewer in front of Zadek's. 
A bomb-proof belonging to Addin Lewis was in 1821 ten- 
dered to the city for a j)rison, and accepted for that purpose. 
People still alive remember playing as children on the ruins 
of Fort Charlotte. 

This sale of the fort is important for what it ended and for 
what it began. It was the first of those syndicate land projects 
which have platted and sold so many Spanish city grants. The 
Orange Grove auctions, the Favre and Bernoudy divisions, the 
slow Kennedy sales in the Price Claim, the quicker platting 
and disposition of the Espejo Tract, all come later, but are 
a continuation of the process of change from an agricultural to 
a commercial community begun by the Mobile Lot Company 
when they bought, platted, and sold Fort Charlotte. 

The growth which necessitated the destruction of the fort 
had already created the first bank, that great Bank of Mobile, 
so long one of the most famous in the United States. It was 
chartered November 20, 1818, by the Territory of Alabama, 
with an authorized capital of five hundred thousand dollars.^ 
^ Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, p. 46. 



412 COLONIAL MOBILE. 

A. W. Gordon was its first cashier. It was significant that 
the site of this peaceful institution was near that of a fort 
bastion, on the west side of Royal, north of Church. A pro- 
jected street through the fort east and west was at first thought 
of as Charlotte Street, but from 1822 it was known as Church, 
from the erection of the first Protestant place of WQrship on 
the church lot shown on the Lot Company's map. This is the 
site of the present Christ Church. It was for all Protestant 
denominations, and was near another bastion, about a block 
north of where once were Remonville's old Catholic church 
and cemetery. In 1822, the old hospital on Dauphin was 
leased out by the city for a theatre ; and two years later, the 
first theatre building of Mobile was erected by N. M. Ludlow, 
with the assistance of several public-spii-ited citizens. This 
was at the northwest corner of Theatre and Royal, on remains 
of the fort's southeast bastion. Immediately west was then 
the first county jail, where now stands the pleasant Kirkbride 
place. 

Possibly the first brick house in American Mobile was the 
extensive building by Henry Stickney on the southwest corner 
of Water and Church streets, — the old Sailors' Home, torn 
down only a few years ago. It was near his wharf at the 
foot of Church Street, and served for residence and business, 
too. The ground floor was a warehouse; the first floor above 
had living-rooms, with verandas, and approach from Church 
Street; and the second floor had bedrooms and wide hall. 
On the roof was a cupola, containing a telescope which com- 
manded the bay. The present Bethel site was the flower 
garden.^ 

And not only was the old fort so turned to peaceful uses, 
but in the esplanade where Beaudrot had been sawn in pieces 
the county now bought a lot for a court-house ; and in the old 
Officers' Barracks Square, across Government Street, was built 
the first cotton compress, that of A. F. Stone & Co. Their 
negroes, in pressing, pulled ropes across Royal until prohibited 
by the city in 1823. Further down in Government, below 
Royal, stood from the time of the fort sale the new public 
markets until after 1837, when the Supreme Court declared 

^ Information from Mrs. C. A. Hammond, now of Montgomery, a daugh- 
ter of Henry Stickney. 



THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 413 

them an obstruction ; ^ but even the new and handsome munici- 
pal buildings and market, erected 1854-55 on the east side of 
Royal, stand in part on foundations of Fort Charlotte. The 
Goodwin and Haire map of 1824 shows no signs of the fort, 
but only the streets and wharves of a modern commercial city. 

The fort was demolished. The bustle of the street not less 
than the hush of religious service, the zeal of local politics and 
the rivalry of business, the bench of justice and the scene of 
forensic eloquence, as well as the tears of tragedy and smiles 
of comedy, all claimed its site, and have conspired to cause 
Bienville's fort to be forgotten. Even as Bienville removed 
the Choctaw wigwams in order to build Fort Louis, that forti- 
fication now made place for homes and institutions of an 
American Mobile. 

Truly, "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." 

Such is the story of Colonial Mobile. Her growth with the 
development of the river country of Alabama; her expansion 
before the Civil War, with the building of a great railroad, 
to be a port of the West, as well as of the Alabama-Bigbee 
basin, quite after Iberville's dream; her decline, too, after that 
war, until Congress cut the ship channel through the bars at 
the mouth of her rivers ; and then her present prosperity, — 
these are themes of interest, and deserve careful presentation. 
But they are beyond the scope of this book. 

The civic and material growth, causing the destruction of 
Fort Charlotte to make way for a greater Mobile, ended the 
colonial period. Mobile had become an incorporated city ; its 
tributary valleys, a State of the American Union. 

Bienville's Mobile and its district had become fully Ameri- 
canized. The friendly Choctaws were to leave their seats to 
the whites; the free negroes of Spanish times ceased to be 
important ; even the gentle Creoles gave way to more pushing 
Americans. The French and Spanish languages gradually 
yielded to the English, their customs to our own. Compara- 
tively few of the old families now survive, and even they are 
largely mixed with American blood. The streets extending 
out from the original settlement retain French names, but 
more numerous new ones commemorate Wilkinson, Jackson, 
1 State V. Mayor, 5 Porter (Ala.), p. 279. 



414 COLOSIAL JIOBILE. 

IVarK»rn. Jefferson, State, Congr^i^, and other American 
wortliies or instirutions. The great tires of IS-T ;uid ISoi^ 
dei^troved the old town, and French and Spanish building? ar>? 
now almost imknov^Ti. But tniilitions live, historic sjx^ts can 
still be shown, and imagination loves to wander l>aok and 
picuir^ the scenes before that change from Latin to American 
Mobile. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



A. — The Induction of De La Vente, 1704. 

(From Mobile Church Records.) 
Jay sousignd prestre et miss, apost, ateste a tous quil appartiendra 
que lannee du salut mil sept cents quatre le vint-liuit'' du mois de 7bre 
en vertu des lettres de provision et de collation accordee et scoUee de 
Le vingt^ de Juillet de lannee derniere, par lesquelles Monseigneur 
Illustrissime et Eeverendissime Eveque de Quebec Erige une Eglise 
paroissiale dans le lieu dit le fort louis de la louisiane et dont II 
donne la Cure et le Soin a m. henri Roulleaux De la Vente miss. 
apost. Du Diocese de Bayeux, Jay mis led pretre en possession actu- 
elle et corporelle de lad Eglise paroissiale et de tous les droits qui lui 
apartiennent, apres avoir observ^ les Ceremonies acoutumees et re- 
quises, Scavoir par lentree de Leglise, laspersion de lean benite, le 
baiser du grand autel, le touchy du missel, la visite du tres Sainct 
Sacrement de lautel et le Son des cloches a laquelle possession Jateste 
que personne ne sest oppos^ donnd en leglise du fort louis le jour du 
mols et de Ian sud en presence de Jean baptiste de bieville lieuten . . . 
du Roy et commandant aud fort, pierre Du Qu . . . de boisbriant 
major, Nicolas de la Sale Ecrivain et faisant faisant fonction de Com- 
missaire de la marine. 

Davion. 

BlENUILLE. 

Boisbriant. 
delasalle. 



B. — Description de la Ville, et du Fort Louis. 

(From Phelypeaux^s Map, 1711.) 

A. fort Louis, fortiffi^ suivant la Longueur de Son Coste exterieur 
d'une pointe de Bastion a L'autre ayant 90 Toises et par cette lon- 
gueur Lon a donn^ aux faces des Bastions Vignt trois toises et demie. 

aux flane douze toises et demie. 



418 APPENDIX. 

aux Gorges Cinq toises et 

aux Courtines quarantes toises. 

Le fort est Construit de pieux de Bois de C^dre ayant treize pieds 
dhauteur dont deux et demies entre en terre, et de quatorzes peaces eu 
quarries de paisseur, plant^es, jointement les uns Centre Les autres. 
Ces pieux ce terminent par leurs Bout denhaut enpointe Comme des 
palissades ; interieuremant aux Long de ces pieux il regne une espece 
de Banquette ayant deux pieds de hauteur en talus Sur, un et demie 
de Largeur. . . . 

II ny a pour tout Logement dans ce fort qu& La maison du Gou- 
verneur. Le magazin ou Sont les effets du Roy, et un Corp de Garde 
Succintement ; Les officiers les Soldats & les habitans ont tous leurs 
Logements hors du fort Comme cy est marquez, estant disposez de 
maniere que les riles ont Six toises de Largeur et toutes paralleles 
les unes aux autres. Les isles de maison ont Cinquante toises . . . 
en quarries hors ceuze de Vis a Vis le fort qui ont Soixante toises 
de Largeur Sur Cinquante de profondeur, et Les plus proches de 
La riviere ont Cinquante toises de Largeur Sur Soixante de profon- 
deur. . . . 

Les maisons que Lon Battles Sont Construittes de Bois de Cddre et 
pin Suportdes par un fondemens d'une quantity de pieux de Bois qui 
^x^dent de terre d'un pied, qu'on pourroit Nommer pillotis parceque 
ce terrain se trouve inond^es comme vous Le Voyez marquez dans le 
Plan dans quelques androits, dans les temps de Pluye ; quelques uns 
ce Sont Servis, pour Suporter leurs maison d'une pierre qui est 
Comme un Espece de tufle, qui est tres douce et qui Seroit nierveil- 
leuze a faire de Beaux Eddifices. Cette pierre ce prand a dix huit 
Lieux audossus du nouvelle dtablissement Les Long des Bord de la 
Riviere de La Mobille. — Les maisons ont 18, 20 i, 25 pieds auplus de 
hauteur, il y en d quelques unes plus Basses Construittes d'un mortis 
fait avec de la terre et de La Chaud, — 

N* cette Chaud est faitte de Coquille d'huistre que lon trouve i. 
Lentr^ de la Riviere Sur des petittes illes qui en porte le nom, &c. 

Lon donne i, ceuze qui Veute Sdtablir dans Cette endroit, de terrain 
douze toises et de Mie de Largeur, Sur la face d'une riles Sur Vignt 
Cinq de profondeur ; — 

Lapierre dont Lon Se Sert pour Supporter les maisons, est Rare et 
Non commune faute des Voitures qu'il Seroit Necessaires davoir par 
eaux, Comme des Batteaux plats qu'il ny 6, pas, ny dont j^ersonnes nen 
veut faire La d^pence, ce qui Seroit d'un grand Secours, car ceuze 
dont les maisons ne Sont Soutenues que de pieux de Bois Sont obligez 
de Les Changer tous les trois ^ quatre ans parce qu'il pourisse dans 
La terre, &c. 



ORDINANCE OF 1667. 419 

' B. Maison du Gouverneur. 

C. Magazin du Roy. 

D. Poudriere ou magazin a Poudre. 

E. Corp de Garde. 

F. Prizons. 

G. Bastion dans le quel on met le pavilion. 

H. Bastion dans Le quel est une Cloche nayant point de Chapelle 
dans le fort. 



C. — The Ordinance of 1667. 

{From Mobile Church Eecords.) 

Le present registre contenants quatrevignt-dixhuit feuilles a ete 
paraph(^ et cottd par premier et dernier par nous conseiller du roy en 
ses conseils et son procureur general au conseil superieur de la province 
de la louisiane pour servir a enregistrer les baptesmes manages et 
sepultures de la mobile pour la presente ann^e 1726 et deliver^ au 
reverend pere mathias cure du dit lieu pour sy conformer suivant lor- 
donnance a la nlle Orleans Jan. 21, 1726. — 

Fleuriau. 

Extrait du litre 20 de lordonnance de 1667. 

Seront faits par chacun au deux registres pour ecrire les baptesmes 
mariages et sepultures en chacune paroisse dont les feuillets seront 
paraphes et cott^es par premier et dernier par le juge royal du lieu ou 
leglise est sittud lun desquels servira de minutte et demeura as mains 
du cur^ ou du vicaire et lautre sera port^ au greffier juge royal pour 
servir de grosse lesquels deux registre seront fournis annuellement aux 
frais de la fabrique. 

Dans larticle des baptesmes sera fait mention du jour de la naissance 
et seront nommes lenfant le pere et la mere le parain et la maraine et 
aux mariages les noms et surnoms ages qualites et demeures de ceux 
qui se marient sils sont en f ants de famille en tutelle curatelle ou en 
puissance dautruy et y assisteront quatre temoins qui declareront sur 
le registre sils sont parents de quel costd et en quel degre' et dans les 
articles de sepulture sera fait mention du jour du deceds. 

Les baptesmes mariages et sepultures seront en un mesme registre 
selon lordre des jours sans laisser aucun blanc et aussitot quils auront 
et^ fait sils seront ecrits et sign^ scavoir les baptesmes par le pere 
sil est present et par les parains et maraines et les actes de mariages 
par les personnes maries et par quatre de ceux qui y auront assist^ 
les sepultures par deux des plus proches parents ou amis qui auront 
assiste au convoy et si aucuns deux ne scavent signer ils le declare- 



420 APPENDIX. 

ront et seront de ce interpellds par le curd ou vicaire dont sera fait 
mention. 

Seront tenus les curds ou vicaires six semaines apres chacune annde 
expiree de porter ou denvoyer seurenient la grosse et la minutte du 
registre signe deux et certiffid veritable au greffier juge royal qui laura 
cottd et paraphd et sera tenu le greffier de le recevoir et y faire men- 
tion du jour quil aura apportd et en donnera la decharge apres receu 
moins que la grosse aura dtd coUationde a la minutte qui demeurera au 
curd ou vicaire et que le greffier aura band en lun et en lautre tous les 
blancs et feuillets qui resteront le tout sans frais Laquelle grosse de 
registre sera gardde par le greffier pour y avoir recours. 

Fleuriau. 

Delaloere Flamont (?) 



D. — The Spanish City Grakts. 

The titles in Mobile outside of the old Spanish town rest on grants 
mainly Spanish, not a score in number. At the extreme north we have 
Farmer's Island and Laurent plantation, still marshy for the most 
part ; and nearer are the Orange Grove and Baudin tracts, the seat of 
the cotton business ; while northwest is the Fisher Tract, now given 
over to negroes. South of the old town came in succession the Favre, 
Bernoudy, and Choctaw Point tracts, all of them then overflowed, or 
marshy back to the ridge on which run St. Emanuel and Conception 
streets, now mainly residence quarters. Immediately west of the fort 
is the McVoy Tract ; while west of the old town is the immense Price 
Claim (cut across by the De Lusser Tract), the main residence dis- 
trict of the modern city. Cottage Hill and Sj^ring Hill are rather 
country tracts, but the Espejo, Dubroca, and Murrell claims on Spring 
Hill Road are fairly parts of Mobile life, although beyond the western 
corporate limits. 

The present city is bounded noi'th by One Mile Creek, or Bayou 
Marmotte. At its greatest extent the corporation has included the 
marsh lands to the north of this up to Three Mile Creek, or Bayou 
Chateaugud ; but practically, until the building of the Mobile and Mont- 
gomery Railroad, and establishment of sawmills since the American 
Civil War, this territory was of no great importance. Between these 
two bayous are two tracts, — an island facing the river, and a marsh 
■west of the island. 

1. The former has always gone by the name of The Island, or 
FarTYier's Island, and the title dates back to British times. It does 
not seem to have been coveted under the Spaniards, but the United 



SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 421 

States Congress was on March 3, 1839, to confirm the tract to the 
heirs of the British claimant, Major Robert Farmer.* 

2. We know more of the western claim, ever called the Laurent 
Plantation. It is even yet principally marsh, traversed now by the 
Telegraph Road and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. In Spanish times 
it could have had little value except for its front on Three Mile Creek 
and Bayou Marmotte. 

Bartholem^ Laurent was a land-owner in the city, and obtained a 
concession to this tract. Laurent had to sign his deeds by mark.^ In 
1803, Panton, Leslie & Co. purchased it of Laurent for $130 cash. 
It was then described as situated south of Bayou Satulle (Chateau- 
gu^?), containing ten arpens front by the usual depth, bounded north 
by the said bayou, south by uncultivated lands, and east and west by 
lands belonging to the king.^ As it adjoined their Orange Grove 
Tract, and had a front on two streams, these merchants may have 
been able to use it in the Indian trade. 

3. Most of the cotton warehouses of the modern city are In what 
is called the Orange Grove Tract, and thus no name is more familiar, 
although the exact site of the orangery and the name of the man who 
planted it have passed into oblivion. The more common name in 
earlier times was Poplar Grove. 

We have already seen that the title dates from British times, being, 
with the Fisher Tract and Farmer's Island, the only direct survivals 
of that epoch. The British government in 1767 granted the tract, 
as having 263 acres, to William Richardson, who conveyed it to 
Panton, Leslie & Co. This grant is said to have been under a British 
. colonial ordinance of 1765, giving a river front of one third the depth 
in all river concessions.* 

In 1796, on the application of John Forbes for Panton, Leslie & 
Co., Olivier had James de la Saussaie survey this sixty-three English 
arpens tract, a quarter of a league north of Mobile, as it then was, and 
put Forbes in possession. William Simpson, before 1802, found the 
survey to be defective, so represented to Osorno, and prayed that the 
tract be resurveyed by Joseph Collins, the regular deputy surveyor of 
the district. Thereupon the following proceedings were had : ^ — 

The Deputy Surveyor of this place, Joseph Collins, shall appear 
before me on to-morrow, the fifth instant, at eight o'clock A. M. of the 

^ & U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 761. 
^ 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 313. 
3 Ihid., p. 313. 

* Magee v. Hallett, 22 Ala. Rep. p. 711. 
^ 1 Translated Records, p. 285. 



422 APPENDIX. 

day aforesaid, assisted by two inhabitants the most contiguous to the 
lands described in the preceding memorial, in order to proceed in my 
presence, and that of the two witnesses, to the survey of the land 
aforesaid agreeably to the annexed plat, which is similar to the like 
one now on file in these archives in the proceedings executed by my 
predecessor, his Excellency Peter Olivier, and, when completed, let a 
copy of the same duly authenticated be provided to the petitioner as 
prayed for. 

Joaquin db Osorno. [Seal.] 

I, Joseph Collins, Deputy Surveyor of the town of Mobile and its 
Dependencies, etc.. Do hereby certify, that in obedience to a decree 
issued by his honor Joaquin de Osorno, Commandant of the Post of 
Mobile, bearing date Fourth of May one thousand eight hundi'ed and 
two, I resorted to the tract of land in order to ascertain the bounda- 
ries and landmarks recited in the proceedings made and executed by 
James de la Saussaie, but could not find any, except a cedar post on 
the south side of the line ; consequently I proceeded to survey the land 
agreeably to the plat in presence of his honor Joaquin de Osorno, 
William Simpson, John Trouillet, and James Gold, it resulting from 
said survey, that the tract of land contains two hundred and eighty 
superficial arpens, measured by the perches of Paris of eighteen lin- 
eal feet, of the same City, according to the usage of this Province, sit- 
uated in the district of Mobile, distant about a quarter of a league from 
said Town, containing fourteen arpens in front on the Bay of Mobile, 
bounded on the north by land of Jeremiah Terry, on the west by land 
of Mr. Fisher, and on the south by public land, the limits of which, 
the trees, and other land marks, both natural and artificial, serving as 
boundaries. In testimony whereof, etc. 

John Forbes improved the front, and thought proper to obtain con- 
firmation by the Spanish authorities, and so in 1807 the intendant gave 
him a concession for 310 arpens and 77^ perches, extending across the 
marsh, thus including the improvements. This grant was held to run 
the north and south lines without deflection to the water.^ 

The plan attached to the Spanish concession is of interest in other 
respects. It shows One Mile Creek as called La Marmata, but the 
southern prong as named Arroyo Chacta, — Clioctaw Creek. About 
the centre of the tract is a very large " House," apparently fronting a 
north and south road. 

The later Orange Grove litigation is interesting as establishing the 
principle that riparian owners shall claim reclaimed land perpendicu- 
^ Hagan v. Campbell, 8 Porter (Ala.), pp. 9, 18. 



SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 423 

larly to the river bank, regardless of how their land lines strike the 
shore. Tlie earlier case extended these lines to low water without 
such deflection, because the Spanish grant so directed, but the rule was 
different as to accretion and reclamation in front of that grant.^ 

4. On April 26, 1803, Osorno, pending the stoppage of land busi- 
ness at tiie office of the Intendant-General, granted to Joseph Collins 
a marshy tract two perches front on Royal, bounded north by lands 
of Panton, Leslie & Co. (Orange Grove), south by St. Louis Street, 
now first mentioned by name, and east by Mobile River.^ This is the 
origin of the Collins claim to the Baudin Tract. The grantee was 
" captain of dragoons attached to the militia company of Fish River, 
and special surveyor of this town." 

In 1806, W. E. Kennedy undertook to improve the tract by fencing 
and ditching, and so perfect the title, in consideration of obtaining the 
northern half. It seems that in 1798, Alexander Baudin had obtained 
a grant of seven arpens at the same spot, and, by his brother Louis 
and also J. B. Trenier, made a levee from Royal to the river. Ken- 
nedy in 1814 bought up this Baudin claim and secured its confirma- 
tion. His executors, after sharp litigation, were finally compelled to 
carry out the agreement to divide with the heir of CoUins,^ although 
the Collins title had been rejected by the United States authorities in 
favor of the Baudin. 

5. The De Lmser Tract is in no sense a Spanish grant, but in Span- 
ish times Don Miguel Eslava acquired his interest in it. On June 21 
1809, Joseph Chastang, for Hazeur de Lorme, of New Orleans, " heir 
of Mr. Lusser," sold Eslava the lot, two arpens four toises front by 
twenty-five in depth, situated on the south of the royal fort of the town, 
bounded east by the house and lot of the purchaser, south by vacant 
lands, and west by lot of M. Morsier. This was doubtless the Morsier 
located north in the earlier deeds, and by a Spanish inquest still extant. 
The price for this was $100. In point of fact, Chastang did not 
represent the De Velle branch, and November 22, 1823, a compromise 
was effected by which tliat half interest was given up by the Eslavas. 
The United States confirmed the title by Act of Congress in 1843.* 

6. On August 13, 1806, William 3Ic Voij obtained from Intendant- 
General Morales an order of survey of twenty arpens adjoining Fort 
Charlotte. He soon sold to Joshua Kennedy, and the tract was culti- 

1 Magee v. Hallett, 22 Ala. p. 699. 

2 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 295. 

3 Hallett V. Collins, 10 How. (U. S.) p. 174 ; Mobile Deed Book "A," 
p. 61. 

* Mobile Translated Records, p. 372 ; 6 Statutes at Large, p. 887 ; Senate 
Committee on Land Claims Report of January 9, 1840. 



424 APPENDIX. 

vatcd and inhabited by liini and a Spaniard in his employ from 1807 
to 1820.^ The use was not snch as to conform to the conditions of the 
sale, and the grant hung fire in American times till confirmed by a 
special attt of Congress, May 5, 183'J.''^ 

This McVoy tract was shaped like a T, the ci'oss being along our 
St. Emanuel and Conception, from the Collel line to Government, the 
upright wedging in between Fort Charlotte and Eslava down to the 
river. A grant of land so close to the fort as this would naturally be 
subject to suspicion, especially as, so late as November 22, ISOO, the 
validity of sale of lots near the forts was considered as unsettled." 

7. This Collel Tract is a small one of three arpens front by six 
deep on the margin of the river, immediately north of the Favre claim. 
It was originally granted Don Francisco Collel, September 20, 180G, 
and surveyed by Collins. The papers were lost or burned in the Pensa- 
cola fire of October 24, 1811 ; aiul on Septend)er 4, 1815, Don Josd 
de Soto, colonel, civil and military commandant, intendant pro tern., 
sub-drlegate, etc., at Pensacola, certifies to these facts. This quasi- 
(piitclaim is the existing nnurnnent of title, and shows a purchase by 
Lieutenant-Colonel (vollcl, he paying live dollars and one half rial in 
silver, the value of the twenty-three superiicial arpens at two rials 
each, the royal duty of media ajinata, and the eighteen per cent, for 
carriage to S[)ain. In 1823, the south half was to ))ass by conveyances 
of CoUel's daughter, Anne Marie Cavelier, wife of Du Suau I)e La 
Croix, of New Orleans, to Thomas F. Townsley, and gradually the 
whole tract changed hands. It extended from about Madison to south 
of Canal Street.* 

8. Royal Street ran only north of the fort, but curiously enough is 
connected with the Furre Tract to the south, the first in time of these 
large Spanish grants. On June 11, 1798, Simon Andry exchanged 
this tract below the city for Favre's lot and a half on Royal, between 
the lots of Savari Tatan to the north and liarthe Renard to the; south. 
Favre was an inter])roter as far back as 17r)4, as we see from the 
French baptismal registers, and even now, under the Spaniards, inter- 
preter of the Choctaw nation. Commandant Espeleta had in 1780 
directed Grimarest to grant this land to Favre, but in some way it had 
not been done, although Favre had been ever since in jmssession. 

To effect this exchange, therefore, Favre had now to obtain a grant 
from Gayoso, the new governor-general, and by a coincidence Andry 
had to do the same thing for his tract. This concession to Andry is 

^ 3 American State Papers, pp. IG, 397; see Mobile Deed Book " A," p. Gl. 

^ 6 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 485. 

•'' 2 White's Neio lleropilacion, p. 403. 

•» Mobile Deed Book "G," pp. 142-145, 176, 162, etc. 



SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 425 

dated July 10, 1798, wlion lie obtained ten arpens river front (instead 
of the twenty asked forj by the usual deptli of forty, hounded north 
by a small bayou called Dmand, and south by vacant lands. It is 
recited by Lanzos that old inhabitants testified it had always been 
vacant property, even before the conquest. Lanzos recommends the 
^•ant for the reason that Andry had a sufficient nundjer of slaves to 
cultivate the land. The usual conditions are imposed, indudinj^ non- 
alienation for three years ; ^ and yet on June 11 these parties had, 
before the same commandant, agreed that Andry should at his own 
expense obtain the grant and pay the official fees for the very purpose 
of alienation. 

9. If we depended entirely on the Mobile records, we should miss a 
number of grants and conveyances. One instance is what is now called 
the Bernoudy Tract, the vast grant south of the Favre concession. 

It seems that on March 3, 1792, .Jos^ Gas[)ar Munora obtained from 
Carondelet a grant to GOO arpens of land on Mobile River, fifteen 
arpens front by forty deep. Who Munora was is not known, except 
that he was of Havana before living in Pensacola. The Spanish reg- 
ulations concerning such gratuitous concessions required three years' 
occupancy, and, beyond cultivation and the making of brick thereon 
by Regis Jiernoudy for })erhapH four years, including 1809 or 1810, 
and use by Espejo with Munora's permission, there was no possession 
by any one in Spanish times. Bernoudy did not get a deed from 
Munora until March 24, 1813, when he paid SI, 130 for the tract. 
Munora's title seems to have been overlooked towards the end of the 
Spanish times, for Charles Proffit, on November 28, 1811, obtained 
some sort of paper from Perez, but never occupied the tract. Joseph 
McCandless, who acquired from Bready, to whom Proffit sold, actually 
dispossessed Bernoudy for a time, and was in American times to live 
there for a while and run a Ijiickyard. A current report was that 
McCandless obtained his title in consideration of the gift to Perez of a 
large crop-eared riding-horse which the commandant used.^ 

It would seem that Espejo ol)tained a government title to this land 
February 10, 1803. He petitioned for a grant of twenty ai7)ens front 
on the river by forty deep, in order to make bricks to use in building 
and repairing ovens in his Majesty's bakery, then in Espejo's charge. 
He describes the land as a mile and a half below the fort, which is too 
far, but as being V>etween Fontanilla and Andry, which is correct, for 
these were the former owners of the tracts south and north respec- 
tively.^ There is no doubt Espejo used the Bernoudy Tract for making 

^ Mobile Tran/tlnted Recordx, p. 21.3. 
2 3 American State Papers, pp. 400, 401. 
" Mobile Translated Records, p. 303. 



426 APPENDIX. 

brick, and it may be that afterwards, learning of the earlier grant to 
Munora, he attorned to him and abandoned his own claim. Bernoudy 
lived until seventy years of age, and since 1830 lies {ci git) in a vault 
in our Old Graveyard. 

10. We have seen that the point we now call Choctaw Point was 
so named under the French, and that in British times Mr. Stuart lived 
on the high land near modern Frascati, overlooking the flooded land 
extending from the bay to about Canal Street. One Joseph Platin 
is said to have owned it at the Spanish conquest, but he died without 
lawful heirs. Thus this tract of fifteen arpens front by forty deep 
became part of the Spanish royal domain. 

The town was too far away, the river shore back to modern St. 
Emanuel and Conception too marshy, for the point to be very impor- 
tant. Its principal use was for a Blood Hospital, but this was tempo- 
rary, for Governor Miro did not hesitate, November 9, 1792, to grant 
it to Francis Fontanilla, assistant storekeeper, for private purposes. 
Fontanilla sold it with two negro slaves to Commandant Osorno in 1801 
for S1200, describing it as a plantation commonly known by the name 
of Choctaw Point, containing fifteen arpens front by forty arpens in 
depth, which land is called Blood Hospital, bounded on the west by 
a small bayou, which is bounded by another tract belonging to John 
Baptiste Lucer, deceased, and on the east by another tract of land 
marshy and impassable.^ This is substantially the description in Miro's 
grant. It seems this tract was cultivated from 1797 to 1813. A copy 
of the original survey by Collins in 1802-1803 still survives. 

It was not long after this, in 1804, that we find Espejo selling " the 
place Chato " to William Simpson, partner of the house of Panton, 
Leslie & Co., for $500. Espejo had purchased from Osorno. 

For some reason not now known, it was thought necessary that the 
grant should be confirmed by Intendant-General Morales on April 17, 
1807, to John Forbes & Co., as containing six hundred acres, three 
days after a survey by V. S. Pintado. 

This tract is not even to the present well built up, and its east end 
is still almost impassable, although the destined seat of railroads 
and docks. Its north line is just south of our Virginia Street, its east 
boundary the river at Choctaw Point, its south the bay as far as 
beyond the toll-gate, and its west line runs somewhat east of Ann 
Street. In 1811, the property was bounded south by Mrs. Bonbell, on 
the other side of whom was Lansemandeville. 

11. This last, the Mandeville Tract., is the southernmost of those 
at any time actually within our city limits. We remember it more 
especially as the probable location of Bienville's chateau. Under the 
1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 283. 



SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 427 

English it had belonged to " John McGillebray and his associates in 
trade," but was now abandoned. 

In the year 1796, J. B. Alexandre obtained these twenty arpens 
front on the bay, at the place called " Lansemanville," ^ — Mandeville's 
Bend. It was bounded south by a bayou. When he conveys it to his 
son Francis in 1802 for $270, he describes it as bounded north by a 
bluflf, south by a small bayou, west by pine lands, and adjoining the 
sawmill called Durand's. By that description, Francis, on April 23, 
1805, sells it for $400 to John Forbes & Co., the source of modern 
titles. It embraces our Arlington and Fair Grounds. 

12. Blakely Island, just across the river from Mobile, has been 
inside the city limits only nominally. Joseph Collins, the surveyor, 
appears to have been its first owner, having acquired it by permit of 
Osorno April 26, 1803. No Spanish survey seems to have been made, 
and so later its acreage was found to be 2280, instead of the esti- 
mated 4000. He sold it in 1807 to Josiah Blakeley, of Connecticut, 
for $1500. In the deed Collins describes it as seven miles long. 
This Yankee made it a plantation, which he called Festino.'^ It was 
a matter of festina lente, however, for it is even to-day pretty much in 
the condition in which he left it. The river front is made serviceable 
by piles and some whai-ves, but the interior is marshy still. Coffee 
Bayou, tradition says, was so named from coffee smuggled through it 
into Mobile by Cyrus Sibley and others in Spanish times. Bull and 
the other heirs got title from the United States in 1842 only to 1280 
acres, and not to the whole island as claimed by Blakeley.^ 

13. Thomas Price we know already as Indian interpreter at Mo- 
bile, and, on account of valuable services in that capacity during the 
time of apprehended trouble with the United States, he obtained two 
grants of land adjoining the town on the west. 

First Governor-General Manuel Gayoso De Lemos, on November 18, 
1798, granted Price 540 acres, situate in the suburbs of Mobile, bounded 
on the north by Terisa's lands and those of Mazuria, on the east by the 
plan of Mobile, — then extending west about to Joachim Street, — and 
on the south by lands claimed by Simon Andre (Andry) and Favre. 
As laid off by Pintado and others, this first grant did not reach to 
either the Favre or Espejo tracts by possibly a half mile, but adjoined 
the city on the west and Fisher (Mazuria) Tract on the south. Price 
— or William E. Kennedy for him — found this out, and proceeded to 
get a grant out to those tracts. Intendant Morales, on September 18, 

1 Mobile Translated Records, pp. 185, 289. 

2 3 American State Papers, p. 9 ; Mobile Deed Book "A," pp. 41, 45. 

3 Report of House Committee, February 23, 1842 ; 6 U. S. Statutes at 
Large, p. 836. 



428 APPENDIX. 

1806, made Price a further concession of about 500 acres more. The 
two grants make up a princely domain, now the principal residence 
section of Mobile, extending west beyond Ann Street. 

On November 24, 1806, Price made Kennedy his attorney to carry 
through his surveys of land in the vicinity of Mobile, and do what 
might be necessary to obtain the complete titles. Only two days be- 
fore the execution of this instrument, Kennedy had bought from Price 
for $200 all of the second (1806) grant, except ten acres in the north- 
west corner reserved by Price for himself. Price seems later to have 
located this reservation near our St. Joseph Street. 

It seems that in August, 1807, Price, for $500, also sold Kennedy 
the tract acquired in 1798 from Gayoso, confirmed by Maxent Novem- 
ber 25, 1806, but that this deed of 1807 was in some way lost in the 
Mobile or Pensacola record office. To cure this, on June 6, 1810, Ken- 
nedy for $700 obtained from Price a deed to the whole tract, which is 
described as " 1100 arpens," bounded north by Poplar Grove, claimed 
by J. Forbes & Co., and by lands claimed by William Fisher, west by 
"A. Espejho," south by Simon Favre, and east by Franc° CoUel and 
William McVoy, and lots on the western part of Mobile occupied by 
Charles Lelong and Benjamin De Brocar and Mobile River.^ 

The Collel and McVoy tracts are well known, and Dubroca had a 
lot on the northeast corner of Joachim and St. Michael. The Price 
Claim came to the river only for a short distance north of St. Louis 
Street, and, indeed, except so far as it overlapped the Baudin claim, 
hardly reached the water at all. This was not material, for W. E, 
Kennedy became the owner of both. In American times there was to 
be an interesting suit to determine how the Orange Grove and Price 
grant boundary line ran across the land reclaimed from the river after 
these concessions, the title to valuable property being thus in dispute.^ 

For some reason, possibly because the deed of 1807 was not exe- 
cuted before the commandant, it was deemed necessary after the 
American occupation for Kennedy to obtain a further deed to the 540 
acres first granted Price, and on that occasion Price reserved two 
(ten ? ) acres at the northeast corner.^ The Price Claim was not 
patented to Kennedy until 1836, and the whole property was the 
subject of heavy litigation between the representatives of the two 
Kennedys. 

14. These ten acres, now containing many handsome residences, 
have a history separate from that of the general Price Claim. Price 

1 Mohile Deed Book « S," p. 109. 
^ Hagan v. Campbell, 8 Porter (Ala.), p. 9. 

3 Mohile Deed Book "A," p. 8 ; 3 American State Papers, pp. 440, 441; 
2 Alabama Reports, p. 571, etc. ; Mobile Deed Book " T," p. 247. 



SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 429 

seems to have lived on the reservation, for in 1810 are mentioned as at 
that point the fields, house, and well made by him. The tract began 
at the northwest corner of St. Anthony and St. Joseph streets, and was 
bounded east by St. Joseph Street, north by the Orange Grove line, 
near our Congress Street, being so platted as to have twenty-one chains 
on a side. Price agreed to sell the place to Harry Toulmin for $250, 
and this was finally done in 1818 by W. E. Kennedy, as executor of 
Thomas Price. ^ The west line went about to our Joachim Street. 

15. Beginning at Ryland Street, a little west of Ann, and extend- 
ing out beyond even the old city limits, is the EsiJejo Tract. When 
granted in 1803-1804, it was a league west of Mobile.^ It was a con- 
cession of land on Tliree Mile Creek (then hayu o passage de los por- 
tales), of the usual twenty arpens front by forty deep to the south, 
which brings it almost to the modern Government Street. The jjajjers 
are peculiar in ajiparently reciting only a verbal representation by 
Espejo. 

The grant was February 22, 1803, by Osorno to Antonio Espejo, at 
a time when the intendant had, on account of the death of the assessor, 
directed that no petition for lands be sent to his office until a successor 
had been appointed. The sub-delegate, as in other cases, declares the 
case urgent, because cultivation of land and increase of population in 
the vicinity of the town would conduce greatly to public convenience ; 
and makes the concession under seal, on condition that the proper 
petition shall later be presented with all necessary formalities. He 
describes Espejo as an old and respectable inhabitant of the town. 
We have known him as having the bakery contract, and as running a 
brick-yard, and in another transaction he is described as a carpenter.^ 
Api'il 11, next year, Osorno directs Collins to survey this land, so that 
valuation may be made. 

We do not know that Espejo actually resided there himself, 
although it was inhabited and cultivated 1802-1813. The land 
proved valuable to his children. He left a widow, afterwards Cata- 
lina Mottus (or Montuse), and three children, — Antonio, Jr. ; Ger- 
trude, who married Richai'd Tankersley ; and Catharine, who married 
William I. IngersoU. The tract was jjlatted into lots and divided 
between the four persons in interest in 1828,^ the claim having been 
duly recognized by the United States upon the favorable report of 
Commissioner Crawford.^ 

16. Next west of the Espejo Tract was another of similar size, 
twenty by forty arpens, also fronting Bayou " Chatoga." This was 

» Mohile Deed Book " B," p. 240. 

2 Mobile Translated Records, p. 304. 8 /j/j.^ p. 228. 

* Mobile Deed Book " H," p. 384. ^ 3 American State Papers, p. 9. 



430 APPENDIX. 

granted Benjamin Diihroca by Osorno February 26, 1803, and the 
land surveyed April 18, 1804. A house was built upon it, and there 
was some cultivation, but not sufficient, in the eyes of United States 
Commissioner Crawford, to have merited the issue of a title by the 
Spanish authorities.^ Nevertheless, a certificate of confirmation issued 
under the act of 1819 and a special act of Congress on May 27, 1840, 
perfected the title,^ then held by the rejiresentatives of William E. 
Kennedy and by many of his grantees. It covers much of the terri- 
tory bisected by the present Spring Hill Avenue between the Reservoir 
and Convent, including the pleasant village of Summerville. 

17. Next out towards Spring Hill lies the Murrell Tract, now, on 
account of the street railroad, well occupied by country homes, many 
of elegance. The extensive grounds of the Convent of the Visitation, 
as well as the home w)iere Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson wrote some of 
her famous novels, are within this Spanish grant. It was granted 
provisionally by Osorno to John Murrell, an inhabitant of Mobile, 
May 7, 1804, on his petition for the eight hundred arpens bounded 
north by the Pass of Sui'lagne, east by lands of Benjamin Dubroca, 
south and west by the royal domain. Murrell solicited j)ermission to 
go immediately in possession, with his stock of cattle and hogs, and 
to erect a house for his dwelling. As Collins was at the time absent, 
Charles Proffit, lieutenant of the Spanish militia of the District of 
Mississippi, was directed to survey the tract, — of course on receiving 
the customary fees.^ 

18. On June 12, 1800, Cayetano Perez granted Regis Duret a tract 
of land one mile square. There seems to have been no survey, but it 
was cultivated and inhabited from 1809 to 1814.* This is the origin 
of tlie title to Spring Hill, a favorite suburb of Mobile in American 
times. The Hill under the Spaniards was too far away from the little 
town to attract much attention as a resort. Hobart was in possession 
as tenant of Duret from 1809. He seems to have aided the heirs in 
the necessary proof before the United States authorities, and, as pur- 
chaser at an administration sale, prevailed over one Richardson, who 
set up some claim of possession after Duret's death in 1819.^ Hobart 
bought from the heirs. 

19. Miguel Eslava, the public storekeeper of the town, seems to 
have been much exercised by the Louisiana Cession. He had some 

• 3 American State Papers, p. 17. 

2 6 Statutes at Large, p. 800 ; Reports of Senate Land Claim Committee, 
January 4, 1839. 

^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 319. 

* 3 American State Papers, p. 10. 

^ Richardson v. Hobart, 1 Stew. Ala. Rep. 501. 



INDEX. 



443 



Mobile, meaning' of word, 8 ; De Sqt® at, 
14-17 ; Iberville selects site, 37 ; rea- 
sons, 37 ; foundation, 39; named, 43 ; 
not agricultural, 58 ; trades, 6(J ; change 
of site, ti9 ■ description of new, 70-74 ; 
renamed Ft. Cond^, 86 • Indian con- 
gress, 105 ; district, 106; Charlevoix on, 
106 ; Dumont on, 116 ; storm, 1740, 
115 ; palisaded; 117 ; Phelypeaux's 
map, 134 ; real estate underjbe French, 
141 ; British take possession, 177 ; Brit- 
ish, according to Roberts, 187 ; British 
troops removed, 201; sickness, 204- 
212; Haldimand on, 205 ; site, 207; 
marshes, 207; according to Bartram, 
237 ; in Council and Assembly of W. 
Florida, 244-247 ; names of residents, 
246; siege by Galvez, 253; " viUa," 
" plaza," 261 ; " ciudad," 330 ; treated 
by U. S. as Spanish, 349'; described by 
Blakeley, 352 ; U. S. troops in Orange 
Grove, 356 ; Perez' capitulation, 360 ; 
extent, 304 ; appearance, 305 ; no Span- 
ish map, 313 ; square number, 311 ; 
Spanish expenses at, 272 ; American 
incorporation, 387 ; first election, 388 ; 
boundary, 388 ; taxes, 389 ; memorial 
for greater powers, 391 ; first commis- 
sioners, 388, 392 ; second board, 392 ; 
market, 390, 392; wharf, 393; sur- 
veyor, 393 ; cows, 393 ; town money, 
394 ; incorporated as city, 397 ; map of 
1760, 400 ; before 1813 recognized by 
United States as Spanish city, 401 ; 
United States land donations, 403 ; 
town V. fort, 406, 407 ; Spanish grants, 
420-431 (see Maps) ; Durnford's pro- 
posed new city, 434. 

Mobile Bay, 3, 10^ 12, 19; Iberville in, 
30 ; chart, 228 ; Spanish names, 321. 

Mobile County, created, 366. 

Mobile Lot Co., 409, 410 ; Hubbard map, 
410. 

Mobile Point, .30, 324 (see Bowyer, Fort). 

Mobile River, 4, 10-13; Charlevoix on, 
106 ; EUicott on, 318. 

Mobilians, 5, 22, 37, 91 ; images, 41, 91 ; 
Iberville, 42 ; whipping, 91 ; , church 
registers, 92. 

Mohr, Chas., 243 note. 

Monberault. 146, 160. 

Money under Company, 88 ; Spanish, 88, 
145 ; ho7is, 174 ; cattle, 322 ; Mobile, 394, 

Mon Louis (Bodin), 139, 154, 264, 322. 

Mon Louis Island, 139, 155, 322. 

Montgomery, 386, 399. 

Montgomery, Fort, 376, 

Montigny, 33. 

Montreal, 25. 

Montrose, 322. 

Montuse tavern, 305 ; wharf, 401. 

Morales, J. V., intendant, 299. 

Morand, 131, 163. 

Mornay, De, 127. 

Moro, Joseph, granted Dauphine Island, 
263. 

Moscoso, 15, 17. 

Mosquitoes, 85, 167, 

Moss, 175, 211. 



Mottus, Silvain, 305, 434. 

Mount Dexter treaty, 346. 

Muscogees, branches, 7 ; traditions, 21 

(see Creeks). 
Mulattoes at Fort Louis, 65. 
Murrell, John, 334, 430. 
Murrell Tract, title, 430, 

Nana Falaya, 222. 

Naniabas, Nauiabes, 22 ; relics, 91 ; Is- 
land, 226. 
Nanipacna, 20. 
Nanna Hubba, 226. 
Narbonne, Anna, tomb, 329 ; Antoine, 

300, 330. 
Narvaez expedition, 12. 
Natchez, traditions, 21 ; Fort Rosalie, 

80, 81. 
Naval stores, 281. 
Negi-oes, slaves, 65, 332 ; slave ships, 87 ; 

Spanish register, 332. 
Neride, 87. 
New Orleans, founded, 84 ; described by 

Blakeley, 354. 
Newspapers : Mississippi Messenger, 348 ; 

Centinel, 349 ; Natchez Gazette, 350 ; 

Mobile Gazette, 390 ; Madison Gazette, 

399. 
Nolte\ 379. 
Notario, cura, 329. 
Notary, French, 119, 146 ; Spanish, 2G5 ; 

none in 1807, 334. 
Notre Dame de la Mobile, 132. 
Noxubee River, 219. 
Noyant, 28, 58. 
Nuns, 66. 

Ocas Island, 268, 

Ochus, 20, 268. 

Oglethorpe, 115. 

Ohio River, 40, 45, 283, 

Okatibbehaw, 217. 

Okchays, 183 note ; 221, 

" Old fields," 101. 

Old Fort, 315. 

Olivier, 291. 

Ondoyer, 64. 

One Mile Creek, 36. 

Orange, 84, 107. 

Orange Grove, troops, 356 ; Tract, title, 

421 ; survey, 422. 
Ordinances, 1667, 419 ; American, 389, 

395, 396. 
Ordonateur, 57. 
O'Reilly at New Orleans, 209. 
Ortiz, 312, 434. 
Oysters, 324, 325. 

Pailloux, 69, 71, 73. 

Palisade, at Mobile, 117, 135, 

Paniouacha, 94. 

Panmure, Fort, 187. 252. 

Panton, Leslie & Co., fill up lot, 291 
Indian trade, 293, 33(5 ; capital, 337 
Indian cessions, 338 ; main store, 308 
acquire the Laurent Plantation, 421 , 
the Orange Grove Tract, 421 ; Choctaw 
Point, 426. 

Panton, Wra., 292. 



444 



INDEX. 



Papain, 94. 

Parker's, 205. 

Parsonage, Spanish, 330, 333 ; sale, 334. 

Partition, Spanish court proceedings for, 
281. 

Pascagoula, French, 156 ; Spanish, 326. 

Pass, for travel, 283. 

Pass Christian, 325. 

Patron, 157, 158. 

Pauger, surveys river, 86, 

Peace, Utrecht, 77 ; Aix-la-Chapelle, 172 ; 
Paris, 176, 181, 263 ; Ghent, 384. 

Pecans, 242, 322. 

Pechon, 162. 

Peire, H. D., .359, 

Pelican, the, .52. 

Pelican Island, 19, 40. 

Peltries, French, 46, 50, 78. 

Penalver, bishop, 331. 

Penicaut, arrival, 33 ; returns to France, 
87 (see 67). 

Pensacola, cession sought by French, 
34 ; Guzman, of, 58 ; aided by Bien- 
ville, 61 ; his attack on, 85 ; Galvez' 
capture, 257 ; capital of W. Florida, 
299, 324 ; Jackson captures, 380. 

Perdido, ferry, 210, 245 ; bay, 324. 

Perez, Cayetano, surrender, 359 ; returns 
to Mobile, 367 ; horse, 425 ; in Ameri- 
can times, 434. 

Perier, 108. 

Petit, 131. 

Petticoat insurrection, 52. 

Phelypeaux's map, 134. 

Picayune, 284. 

Pierre, 132. 

Pilots, British, 199 ; Spanish, 325 ; Amer- 
ican, 394, 395. 

Pineda discovers Mobile Bay, 10. 

Piney woods, 72. 

Pintado, V. S., 263, 301. 

Pirates, Carthagena, 49 ; Jamaica, 150. 

Pitch, 241. 

Pitchlyn, John, 341, 342. 

Pittman, Lieut., 188 ; survey, 200. 

Plocks, 323. 

Point Clear, 322. 

Police officers, American, 391, 407. 

Pollard V. Kibbe, 404. 

Pollock, Oliver, 250, 251. 

Pontchartrain, 30. 

Pontiac, 188, 194. 

Poor rate, British, 247. 

Poplar Grove, 421. 

Population, of Mobile in 1704, 54 ; 1708, 
58; 1728, 108; 1745, 116; 1760, 137; 
1785, 271 ; 1788,_ 273 ; 1818, 395 ; of 
French and English colonies, 172. 

Portage, 26, 339, 388, 391 ._ 

Portersville district, Indian remains, 92 
note ; islands, 120 ; Indian legend, 155 ; 
Spanish, 325. 

Potato, 239, 319. 

Pottery, 210, 322. 

Pousset, 194. 

Powder house, 395. 

PoweU, Thos., 320. 

Priber, 160: 

Price, Thos., 302, 333 ; house, 311. 



Price Claim, title, 427. 

Priests, French, ()2, 126 ; Spanish, 329. 

Privy Council, functions, 247. 

Proffit, Charles, 425, 430. 

Prosper, 131. 

Prostitutes brought to Mobile, 87. 

Punishments, Spanish, 281. 

Pun)i)s, public, 396. 

Pushmataha, 344 ; regimentals, 370 ; of- 
fers services, 370 ; trial, 373 note ; at 
Washington, 373 note ; death, 373 note ; 
lived near Meridian, 339 ; at Holy 
Ground, 371. 

Quay, 134. 

Quebec, seminary of, 33 ; priests at Mo- 
bile, 73 ; fall, 173. 

Raft, from Tombecb4, 168. 

Raoul, 399. 

Ravesies, 399. 

Records, Spanish, 262 note. 

Red Captain, 186. 

Red Cliff, 200 ; stockade, 210. 

Red Shoe, 109, 116. 

Reformed faith, 130. 

Registers (see Church), 128, 131, 132; 
negro, 332. 

Relics, Indian, 6. 

RemonviUe, memorial, 29; brings stores, 
77 ; church of, 132. 

Renommee, 37, 44, 60, 70. 

Requests, court of, 236, 

Revolution, American, 242, 244, 

Ribero, map, 12, 

Rice, 106, 135, 320, 

Richardson, claim to Spring Hill, 430. 

River bank, title to, 404, 405, 422. 

Roads, Indian, 42, 339 ; British, Pensa- 
cola to Mobile, 245 ; Muscle Shoals, 
Military, and Cherokee roads, 346; 
"three chopped way," 348. 

Rochemore, intendant, 174, 

Rochon, Pierre, (I.) 191 ; contractor, 212 ; 
and Haldimand, 213, (II,) 228, 232; 
title, 321, 

Rochon, A., place, 234, 

Rock Creek, 434. 

Romans, Bernard, exploration, 215; on 
Tombigbee, 216. 

Rosalie,_ Fort, 80, 108. 

Ross, Lieutenant, on Mississippi, 189. 

Ross, J. F., 387. 

Round Island, 326. 

Round Top, 401. 

Royal St,, named, 76; under Spaniards, 
266, 

Rum, among Indians, 229, 233, 245, 248. 

Russian princess, 89, 164. 

St, Anthony Street, .309. 

St. Charles Street, 309. 

St. Cosme, 50, 5:?. 

St. Denis, arrival, 33 ; at Mobile, 55 ; in 

Mexico, 79 ; lot, 72 ; at Dauphine 

Island, 85, 
St, Emanuel Street, 310, 
St. Francis Street, 308 ; opened, 394. 
St. Helene, 28, 80. 



INDEX. 



445 



St. Ddefonso, 298. 
St. Joseph Street, 308, 309, 311. 
St. Louis Street, 76, 309. 
St. Louis Tract, 109, 142. 
St. Michael Street, 308. 
St. Michel, 43. 

St. Stephens, site, 224 ; fort, 31b ; Span- 
ish grants, 317 ; occupied by Americans, 
341 ; laid o£E, 348 ; palmy days, 386. 
St. VaUier, 63, 126, 127. 
Saarean, 34. 

Salto, Bayou, 303, 315, 323, 380. 
Salvador, 329. 
Sands, A. L., 361, 376. 
Santahogue, l86^ 
Sara, Bayou, 315. 
Sargent, Winthrop, .343. 
Saussaye, J., 265 ; death, 332. 
Sauvole, 32, 33, 38. 
Savage Ilouse (see Indian House). 
Sawing asunder, 89. 
Sawmills, 68, 326. 
Schauniburgh, Capt., 369. 
Schitimachas (Chetimachas), 98. 
Sea Warrior, 223, 
Sebastien, 132. 
Selma, origin, 386. 
Seminary of Quebec, 33; vicar-general 

from, (i3. 
Serigny, 28, 85, 87. 
Seven Years' War, 173. 
Seymour's Bluff, 269. 
Shell Banks, 71 ; relics, 92 note ; Dau- 

phine Island, 152, 384. 
Shipping, American, 395, 396. 
Shore, title to, 404, 405, 422. 
Sibley, Cyrus, 352, 356. 
Sickness at Mobile, 204, 232. 
Silver, and Indians, 219. 
Sipsey River, 218. 

Slavery, Indian, 64; negro, 65; Irench 
slave ships, 87 ; emancipation, 289 ; 
Spanish, 282, 332; after Treaty, of 
Ghent, 385 ; Lacoste's negroes, 385. 
Smallpox, 109. 

Smith, James, in canoe fight, 371. 
Smoot, B. S., 381. 

Smuggler, British, 110. ,„••!_ 

Soldiers, French, 51; pay of British, 

249. 
Sossier, Henry, 320. 
Soto, 14-17. 
Sou, 88 note. 
Sovager, 136. 
Spain, importance in 16th century, 9; 

and United States, 293, 357. 
Spaniards, explorations, 9 ; forbid French 
settlement at Biloxi, 33 ; at Mobile, 58 ; 
government of Louisiana, 261, 262 ; 
Mobile expenses, 272 ; policy towards 
Kentucky, 277; United States and 
Spain, 293 ; land grants, 317 ; names, 
321, 325. 
Spanish Conspiracy, 277, 294. 
Spanish Grants, 298, 420^31 (see their 

several names). 
Sponsors, 94. 
Spring HiU, 215, 430. 
Star anise, 239. 



Steamboats, 395, 396. 

Steuernagel, journal, 251. 

Stewart, Geo. N., 399. 

Stickney, Henry, 403, 412, 

Stock, French times, 37, 58; Spanish, 
353. 

Stockton, 6, 319. , :, o.. 

Stoddert (Stoddart), Fort, founded, 341 ; 
port of entry, 349 ; in Blakeley's time, 
353 ; spelling, 363 note. 

Stone, scarce, 71. 

Storms, 1733, 109 ; 1740, 115 ; 1772, 232, 

Streets, French names, 74, 313; title, 
314 ; American extensions, 393, 394, 
412, 413, ^ ,. 

Stuart (or Stewart), John, Indian super- 
intendent, 183, 184, 229. 

Stuart (or Stewart), Charles, deputy su- 
perintendent, 183 note, 207, 215, 233, 
244. 

Sunflower, place, 270, 317. 

Superior Council, 86, 108. 

SurtUl, 310, 312, 313. 

Surveyors, Spanish, 263, 301 ; fees, 301 ; 
Proffitt„430; American, 393,402, 403 
note, 410. 

Swanson & McGillivray, 238, 242. 

Tankersley, 403, 429, 432. 

Tanner, the lost, 43. 

Taouachas, 96, 374. 

Tar, 68, 105, 241, 316. 

Tate, D., 370. 

Tatum, Maj., surveys Alabama River, 

374. 
Taxes, Spanish, 262 ; American, 389. 
Taylor, Wm., 182, 198. 
Tecumseh, 368, 371. _ 
Temperance Hall, site, 311. 
Temperature, 206, 238. 
Tensaws (Tan^as), at Mobile, 79 ; slaves, 
99 ; in church registers, 99, 100 ; De 
Lusser grant, 142 ; site, 237 ; Farmer, 
238. 
Theatre 412. 

Thomez'(Tohomes), 22, 42, 90. 
Three MUe Creek, 36, 93, 207, 388. 
Three Mouths, 225, 317. 
Titles, Spanish, 265, 274, 300. 
Titus, James, 386. 
Tobacco, 106. 

Tohomes, 22, 42 ; location, 90. 
Tombecb^, Fort, built, 111 ; description, 
165 ; under the British, 182 ; abandon- 
ment, 199 ; Romans at, 220. 
Tombigbee River, name, 87, 120, 220 

note ; Romans on, 216. 
Tonty, 2t), 31 ; at Biloxi, 33 ; among 
Choctaws, 40, 43 ; life, 48, 49 ; death, 
55 
Tories, 252, 319. 
Touachas (Touchas, Taouachas), 96, 315, 

374. , 

Toulmin, Harry, early history, 345; let- 
ter, .345. 
Toulmin Tract, title, 429. 
Toulouse, Fort, founded, 80; history, 
158 ; camion, 164 ; appearance, 164 ; 
abandoned, 182. 



446 



INDEX. 



Tourn^e, Rue de, 134. 

Tracts, 298, 420-431. 

Trade, French, with Spaniards, 78 ; fur 
78; tarifE of the Company, 86, 106 
later French times, 105; stations, 106 
Anglo-Indian, 186, 248; exports, 199 
229; to London, 246; licenses, 248 
under the Spanish, 271, 281-283, 285 
Panton, Leslie & Co., 336, 337 ; Ameri 
can Indian agents, 340 ; merchants, 
1817, 394 ; American, 395. 

Tradesmen, French, 66. 

Traditions, Indian, 21. 

Trails, Indian, Mobile to Choctaws, 339; 
Pensacola to Creeks, 339. 

Treaty (see Peace, Indians,) of 1795, 
294 ; St. Ildefonso, 298 ; Mt. Dexter, 
346. 

Trenier, J. B., 302, 312. 

Trouillet partition, 281. 

Trudeau, C. L., 263, 301. 

TurnbuU & Joyce, 283. 

Tuscaroras, 79. 

Tuskaloosa and De Soto, 14-16. 

Tuskaloosa, village burned by McKee, 
371 ; American origin, 386, 399. 

Ulloa, arrival at New Orleans, 199; ex- 
pelled, 202. 
Undertaker, Spanish, 287. 
U. S. Hotel, 334. 
Utrecht, peace of, 77. 

Valentin, 132. 

Valligiiy, 70, 72._ 

Valuation, Spanish, 334. 

Varlet, 12(5. 

Vaudreuil, arrival, 115; Chickasaw ex- 
pedition, 118; pacifies Choctaws, 117; 
goes to Canada, 134 ; surrenders Mon- 
treal, 174. 

Vaugeois, J. F., 332. 

Vaulesar (Volezard) company, 51, 65. 

Vauxbercy (Vobiscey), Mme., 238. 

Vegetables, 5, 105, 230, 392. 

Velaseo, 18. 

Vestry, under the British, 247. 

Vicars-general, 128. 

Victorin, 131. 

Vilars, Julia, 311. 



Village, the, 207, 380. 
Vine and olive colony, 398. 
Vieux Fort, 38, 315. 
Virginia, 330, 343. 
Vitry, 128, 131. 
Voyageurs, in Mobile, 72. 

Waldeckers in British army, 251.' 

Walker, Tandy, 368. 

Ward, 323. 

Warden, 130. 

Wards, 1814, 389. 

Washing place, 391. 

Washington, Indian policy, 340. 

Washington County, created, 343 ; judi- 
cial district, 345 ; bar, 349. 

Water at Mobile, 206, 208, 388, 391. 

Water lily, 239. 

Water Street, 393, 396. 

Wax-tree, 175, 238. 

Weatherford, William, 369, 371, 372, 
374. 

Weeks, 323. 

Wegg, 201, 207, 210, 246, 434. 

Wells, American, 396. 

Wharves, 138, 304, 305, 393. 

White House, 320. 

Wilkinson, James, conspirator, 277 ; 
builds Fort Adams, 343 ; career, 344 ; 
takes Mobile, 358 ; report, 362 ; sent 
north, 369. 

Willing, James, 250. 

Wilson, Ehzabeth, 326. 

Wilson, James, 393, 395, 401, and note. 

Winchester, General, 381, 383, 384. 

Wolfenbiittel, 89. 

Woodbine, 239. 

Woods, Mobile, 3, 30, 39. 

Wyman, W. S., 217 note. 

Yam, 242. 
Yamassees, 95, 97. 
Ychuse (see Chusee), 20. 
YeUow fever, 55, 56, 396. 
York, Fort, 182. 
You, M., 79. 
Youpon, 7, 239. 
Yowanne (Yoani), 166, 216. 

Zadek's, 307. 



^It iStbJrsfDe press 

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U. S. A. 

ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

H. O. HOUGHTON AND CO. 



IbQ 



